To reduce science’s carbon footprint, researchers in France reinvent work practices

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By Elisabeth Pain, Science. 

Excerpt: Since 2019, the Institute of Biology and Chemistry of Proteins (IBCP) in Lyon, France, has retrofitted the building for greater energy efficiency, raised freezers’ temperatures 10°C, and reduced the need for autoclaving by 1 month’s worth of cycles per year. The institute increasingly orders consumables in bulk, recycles polystyrene packaging, and gets small lab equipment repaired rather than replaced. Every year it also organizes a contest for researchers to clean out their freezers so it doesn’t have to buy new ones. Thanks to these efforts and more, IBCP reduced its carbon footprint by about 13% between 2019 and 2023. ...These grassroots efforts are part of a larger movement across France. At its forefront is Labos 1point5, a collective of some 600 researchers who believe science should lead by example when it comes to reducing society’s carbon footprint. ...more than half of the carbon footprint of most French research laboratories comes from manufacturing, transport, and technical services associated with lab supplies and equipment—far above other common considerations such as traveling to conferences, commuting to work, and heating buildings.... 

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