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Sustainable Berkeley Lab

(SBL) - Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

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Sustainability is for Everyone

The Lab is making significant progress toward big sustainability goals, but achieving them requires everyone’s participation. Learn how you can contribute to a more sustainable future, both at work and at home.

Energy

Commuting & Travel

Commuting & travel account for 25% of the Lab’s total emissions. You can help in the following ways:

  • Consider alternatives to a single-occupancy gas vehicle commute
  • Optimize air travel
    • If you travel, optimize plane trips for occasions where face-to-face interaction is essential. A round trip between the east and west coast is equivalent in emissions to powering the average home for a year. Calculate your flight footprint at the Carbon Footprint Calculator, and “include radiative forcing” to calculate the full impact
    • Consider instead virtual meetings using an online tool like Zoom. 

Materials 

The Lab promotes a circular model for materials through intentional purchasing, recycling, and composting. The Lab cannot meet its sustainable purchasing and waste diversion requirements without you! 

  • Make Smart Purchasing Choices 
    • Waste Less by buying less 
        • buy only what you need, and avoid excessive packaging such as single-serving items.
        • Consider embodied energy and operational energy. 
        • Choose recycled content and Energy Star
    • Choose Nontoxic
        • Many everyday items that we buy are made with toxic chemicals, such as: highly fluorinated chemicals, antimicrobials, flame retardants, bisphenols and phthalates, some solvents, and certain metals.
        • Check out the Green Science Policy Institute located in Berkeley for good information on toxics, including videos describing the six classes of toxic compounds
    • Learn the requirements 
  • Bring your own to avoid single-use items
    Check out these alternatives to disposable plastics (bottles, cutlery, grocery bags, etc. that are typically used just once before discarding).
    • Bring your own mug, cup, cutlery, lunch containers, etc. 
      • Make it a habit with some simple tips
      • If you work onsite, you can get a free reusable cutlery set – fill out this Google Form and we’ll send one to your Mail Stop (while supplies last).
    • Choose to Refill – Bring your own grocery bags & containers and buy bulk
    • Learn more ideas for going Plastic Free 
  • Sort your trash responsibly
    • Food scraps and soiled paper go in the green compost bin!

Water

California is a drought-prone state. The Lab conserves water through actively seeking and implementing water conservation opportunities, and improved monitoring to ensure continued conservation.

Food 

  • Eat a plant-based diet
    • Consider reducing the portion of your diet that comes from meat (especially red meat: beef and lamb). Project Drawdown explored a scenario in which half the world’s population limited meat consumption to about an ⅛ of a pound per day and found this to be the fourth most effective strategy to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions (after managing the release of refrigerants, wind power, and reducing food waste). Explore the most effective strategies to reduce greenhouse emissions at Project Drawdown.
  • Avoid food waste
    • The United States throws away 40% of its edible food, which is worth $200 billion annually, the single largest source of trash ending up in landfills, and contributes to the country’s third largest source of methane pollution, an extremely potent greenhouse gas.
    • Check out the National Resource Defense Council’s site for tips on saving food.
  • Compost food scraps & food-soiled paper

At Home

Whether you rent or own, you can increase comfort AND save money, energy, and water. 

  • Efficiency first

Focus first on making your home more efficient, then you can right-size furnaces, water heaters, and renewables.

    • Check out incentives for efficiency, solar, EVs, and more.
    • Use power strips and power saving settings to simplify turning off office equipment, home entertainment, and other electronics when not in use. Some electronics, such as speakers, can use significant energy when not in use. Smart power strips automatically turn everything else off when the “controlling” unit, such as a TV or laptop, is turned off.  
    • Use a programmable thermostat
    • Replace light bulbs with LEDs.
    • Insulate against drafts and energy loss. Start by weatherstripping doors and windows against drafts. Save more by adding insulation to attics and sub-flooring.
  • Use water wisely
    • Water plants early when it’s going to be hot, avoid watering midday, and turn off your irrigation system when it’s raining. 
    • Fix leaks and turn off the tap when brushing teeth, shaving, shampooing, doing dishes.
    • Low-flow fixtures are easy to install for showers and sinks. Also consider low-flush / dual flush toilets. Learn more at Your Plan, Your Planet.
    • See more more water saving tips 
  • Fix & upgrade
    • Creatively reuse or fix household items instead of throwing them away or replacing.
    • Update home appliances and systems. If you have an old refrigerator, the energy savings could be significant. 
    • Consider electrifying when replacing appliances and home systems. By using electricity, your home’s greenhouse gas footprint will shrink over time as the state de-carbonizes the electricity grid or you add your own renewable electricity systems. Heat pumps are usually the most efficient way to go (for heating, water heating, and clothes drying) while induction cooktops are a good alternative to gas stovetops. Use the CoolClimate Calculator to find out what portion of your home’s greenhouse gas footprint comes from natural gas.

In Labs

Laboratories use a significant amount of energy, water, and materials compared with office space. Here are some tips to make the best use of Lab resources.

Fume hoods use a lot of energy to ensure safe ventilation throughout the fume hood and laboratory room. Sashes left open when nobody is using the hood wastes a lot of energy. When a sash is left open, conditioned air moves through the fume hood at a high rate and is replaced by outside air that must be heated or cooled. Closing the sash at the Lab can avoid the release of 3 to 4 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year, roughly equivalent to the emissions associated with a typical Californian driving for a year.

    • Tidy fume hood spaces so the sash can close
    • Close fume hoods when not in use
    • Leave Kimwipes, paper, and other light objects outside the fume hood, as they can be sucked up and impair the safety, function, and efficiency of the hood
    • Put electrical cords through the space under the airfoil
    • Submit a Facilities work order to fix fume hoods

Ultra-low temperature freezers (ULTs) are one of the largest electricity loads in a laboratory, using about as much energy a an average California home. ULTs last about 10 years, and often fail unexpectedly, risking catastrophic loss of research samples and an urgent replacement purchase. Consider the following to reduce your freezer’s energy consumption and protect the contents:

    • Ensure that your unit receives proper maintenance
    • Operate the freezer efficiently
    • Purchase an Energy Star ULT for replacement
    • Learn more in the ULT Guide 

Much of Laboratory waste can be composted, recycled, or reused, including used paper towels and various forms of packaging. 

  • Avoid single-pass cooling equipment
    • Single pass-cooling – running cold city water into the drain as a way to dump for waste heat – is against Lab policy and an unacceptable approach for cooling in our drought-prone state. The Lab works hard to avert temporary single-pass cooling in building cooling towers, including a prompt alert-and-response program.
    • If you encounter laboratory or other equipment on single pass cooling, please contact Sustainable Berkeley Lab at sbl@lbl.gov. We’re interested in helping find alternative solutions.