ATL Standard

Laboratories at Georgia Tech are pivotal to the institution's research and technological advancements. These labs, covering approximately 900,000 square feet, are known to consume resources at a significant rate — about 10 times the electricity and four times the water of a conventional classroom — and are major producers of hazardous waste. Recognizing this, Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S) collaborated with the Office of Sustainability in 2024 to initiate the My Green Lab working group to foster more sustainable lab practices.

My Green Lab is an international initiative aiming to enhance sustainability and resource efficiency in laboratories. As part of their certification process, participating labs evaluated their sustainability measures and identified improvement areas, including waste and resource management. Efforts include defrosting refrigerator coils and using timers on equipment. Alicia Wood-Jones of EH&S was instrumental in this initiative. She expressed gratitude, saying, “We believe that even small steps forward can make a big difference here at Georgia Tech.”

Katherine Nguyen, from the Takayama Lab, emphasized the importance of the program, stating, “I’m incredibly happy and proud to have been a part of this program... My Green Lab helped identify feasible options for labs to reduce their waste." Nguyen's lab was the first to achieve the My Green Lab certification at Georgia Tech.

At the Molecular Evolution Core Laboratory, led by researchers Anton Bryksin, Shweta Biliya, and Adam Fallah, efforts such as the Tip-Cycle program, which sterilizes and recycles pipettes, highlight innovative approaches to sustainability. Shweta Biliya noted, “We’ve always wanted to make our lab practices more sustainable... My Green Lab gave us the tools and guidance to turn that intention into action.”

By integrating sustainable practices, Georgia Tech aims to maintain its global research reputation while managing resources responsibly.

For further details on the My Green Lab initiative, visit Georgia Tech's Office of Sustainability.