Greening the Lab: Tips from Lab Manager’s Green Lab Digital Summit

Today’s guest blog was written in collaboration with Melissa Martin, a former global marketing intern with Promega. She is a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she is double majoring in zoology and life sciences communication, with a certificate in environmental studies.

Infographic illustrating the places where simple actions can be taken to help build greener labs: greening the lab

Schools, businesses and organizations across the globe are increasingly implementing sustainable practices within their workspaces. From large-scale projects like installing solar arrays to behind-the-scenes initiatives like composting cafeteria food waste, “going green” is a reality of the modern workplace.

But one workspace otherwise known for being cutting edge and innovative is still struggling to implement the practices and culture of sustainability.

In her role as a teaching lab coordinator at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Nanobiotechnology (INTB), Christine Duke noticed a contrast between campus-wide sustainability initiatives and research labs:

“There is something missing here. Why aren’t we doing anything in the labs?”

Continue reading “Greening the Lab: Tips from Lab Manager’s Green Lab Digital Summit”

2030 Sustainability Goals: Our Most Ambitious Ever

Solar Panels on three Promega Madison buildings - Corporate Responsibility focuses on sustainability and supporting our employees, customers and communities.

The Promega Corporate Responsibility Report captures a variety of stories of how we’ve supported our employees, customers and communities over the past year. For example, in 2020, 735 million samples were tested for SARS-CoV-2 using Promega reagents. We launched a new scholarship to support students from underserved backgrounds, and we completed our three largest solar arrays on our Madison, WI campus. As we look to the future, we recognize that there are always more opportunities to reduce our environmental impact. That’s why we’re setting our most ambitious sustainability goals ever.

Continue reading “2030 Sustainability Goals: Our Most Ambitious Ever”

Sanitation and World Water Day 2021: What Would You Change about Water in Your Area?

Today, March 22, is World Water Day 2021, recognized by the United Nations and people around the world as a time to focus on the goal of available clean water for all.

United Nations World Water Day 2021 Graphic

Clean water for drinking is essential for our existence. A human can only survive without water for about three days.

While water is essential for life, the need goes beyond simple consumption. As is true of so many things, the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us the need for sanitation—being able to wash our hands, our clothes and ourselves with clean water, being able to rinse foods and a safe means by which to dispose of, or recycle the dirty water afterwards. And, even the need to monitor wastewater to help track infectious disease outbreaks.

World Bank and Sustainable Development Goal #6 (#SDG6)

The World Bank provides an extravagance of data on their sustainable development goal #6, Clean Water and Sanitation, noting the importance of water “for health, the environment and sustainable development”.
To add to the needs surrounding water and its scarcity, the World Bank states that:

Despite gains, more than half the world’s people lack access to safely managed sanitation services.

Continue reading “Sanitation and World Water Day 2021: What Would You Change about Water in Your Area?”