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UCL hires award winning Sustainable Labs Advisor, Martin Farley
17 January 2017
We are pleased to announce that we have a new member of the team, Martin Farley who will be UCL’s first Sustainability Labs Advisor.
Martin has a background in stem cell research and won the 2015 Sustainability Professional Green Gown award, particularly for his work surrounding Ultra Low Temperatures (ULT)- freezer temperatures.
He will be helping to make UCL’s labs more efficient to reduce their impact on the environment.
Why make UCL's labs sustainable?
UCL is London’s research powerhouse. Our academics are world-renowned experts in their fields, who undertake critical research needed for addressing humanity's major challenges. While it is imperative that we must continue UCL’s legacy of producing outstanding research, labs can have significant impacts on the environment due to their vast amount of energy and water usage and ability to produce high volumes of waste from inefficient storage and cataloguing and from unsustainable purchases.
UCL has run Green Impact, a programme which allows staff to ‘green’ their departments for over 4 years. It has a significant section on how to ‘green labs’ but whilst huge work has been done to improve efficiency in UCL’s labs, last year two thirds of UCL’s energy bill (~£8million) was spent on fuelling them. This is equivalent of just under 45,000 tonnes of CO2. Martin Farley will be able to provide lab assistants and manager’s advice and support on making UCL’s labs more sustainable. Green UCL have funding available for specific energy-saving projects and departments will receive merit for their efforts at UCL's annual Sustainability Awards ceremony.
Improving efficiency in UCL’s lab will not only result in environmental improvements, but this will also cause significant cost savings, improve working conditions and safety measures as well as help accelerate research.
See how the Chemistry department saved energy, resources and money through the use of simple measures to green their labs.
