Biological research is under the microscope

Caroline Seydel calls for accurate environmental impact assessments of biological research in order to increase sustainability. Both the wet laboratory and computer research have potential environmental gains. Making sustainability a funding condition is likely to trigger progress in this sector.

Published

October 17, 2023

Gemma Drake

Research Analyst

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“There was this idea that we were doing such good in the world that the rules didn’t really apply to us.”

Molecular biology has created huge advances in healthcare. Still, Caroline Seydel, the author of a new article published in Nature Methods, says that this does not just cancel out the carbon footprint of the labs conducting the research. There are ways to conduct the research without compromising its goals and protocols. Perhaps researchers need to start balancing the project’s goals against the environmental costs, as would be done with monetary costs.[i]

Loïc Lannelongue, a biomedical data scientist at the University of Cambridge, told Seydel that considering the environmental impact of a study won’t end research, just like imposing ethical standards on clinical trials did not stop clinical trials. Instead, the carbon footprint of the research will be reduced, and the work will be carried on more sustainably.[ii]

There are sustainability gains to be made in day-to-day laboratory processes

Sustainability measures have already been implemented in some labs. For example, there are several ways to improve the energy efficiency of a lab. Laboratories can require three to ten times more energy per square foot than a typical commercial office building.[iii] Most of this energy demand usually comes from HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) systems.[iv] One sustainability initiative is keeping freezer temperatures at -70°C instead of -80°C. Most biological samples can be kept at -70°C, and just a 10-degree temperature increase reduces energy consumption by 30%.[v] Other behaviours that scientists can implement to save energy are turning off equipment when it’s not in use, remembering to keep fume hood sashes closed, only running autoclaves when they’re full, using smart outlets to monitor energy usage, and cleaning and maintaining cold storage.[vi]

There have also been initiatives to reduce single-use plastic waste in the lab. Around 2% of global plastic waste comes from labs.[vii] Pipette tips and latex and nitrile gloves make up a large portion of lab waste, but they are difficult to recycle. Pipette tips and other small plastic items usually cannot be processed by recycling facilities because they clog the machinery. The University of Georgia has set up a partnership with private-sector businesses to solve this issue. The university fills large polypropylene drums (which contain waste from the businesses) with lab plastics such as microcentrifuge tubes, Falcon tubes, and pipette tips and boxes. The entire drum of plastics can then be recycled together. A glove recycling programme is being piloted in select labs by Sarah Hamm-Alvarez, an associate dean at Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. The labs buy a $150 used glove collection container from TerraCycle. The gloves are then broken down and resold to manufacturing companies. After three months, data will be collected on how much waste was diverted from the landfill compared with the cost per lab.[viii]

Computers also contribute to climate change

It might seem that working on a computer is more environmentally friendly than working in a wet lab because less plastic and chemical waste is generated. However, when using huge algorithms and supercomputers for research, there is a significant environmental impact in terms of energy use, the raw materials needed for the computer, and the water used for cooling.[ix]

Let’s specifically look at energy use. 196 out of 500 of the world’s supercomputers have submitted power measurements. Together, these 196 supercomputers consume about 3 billion kWh of energy per year.[x] The higher the frequency that the computing elements are operating at, the more energy that is consumed. The energy use of supercomputers is also an issue with cryptocurrency. According to the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, 0.38% of global electricity consumption comes from Bitcoin’s energy use.[xi] This is more than the electricity use of individual countries like Belgium or Finland.[xii] You can read more about the environmental impacts of cryptocurrency mining here.

Thankfully, there are some solutions. The time of day that you conduct your research can have an impact.[xiii] Additionally, the overall carbon footprint can be reduced by remotely accessing data centres located in areas that rely more on sustainable sources of electricity. A further example is regenie. Regenie is a whole-genome regression method designed by the Regeneron Genetics Center in 2021. The method allows a compressed dataset to be loaded onto a computer, requiring much less memory.[xiv] Finally, DNA storage may be a way to store dense information in the future.[xv]

To improve wet lab and computer research sustainability, scientists need accurate and easy-to-use tools to estimate environmental impact

Green Algorithms is a computational science carbon footprint calculator developed by Loïc Lannelongue, Jason Grealey, and Michael Inouye.[xvi] It simplifies the process of calculating the carbon footprint of computational science research so that it can be done quickly.

LEAF (Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework) is a standard set by University College London which helps laboratories improve their sustainability and efficiency. LEAF has an online calculator, allowing researchers to measure the financial and carbon impact of their lab and track improvements. 85 global institutions are using the framework.[xvii]

Funders are the key to driving change

Sustainability should become a funding condition in the grant application process. Funders should set expectations for efficiency and sustainability in research methods. LEAN (Laboratory Efficiency Action Network) is an organisation of individuals passionate about sustainable science.[xviii] LEAN has been talking to funders to try and get them to include sustainability conditions within grants.[xix] This is where clear metrics of lab sustainability are useful because they allow the comparison of different labs.