Brain Sciences celebrates sustainability awards

The Department of Brains Sciences celebrates obtaining both a Gold and Silver LEAF award

The laboratories on the seventh floor of the Sir Michael Uren Hub, White City Campus and the Burlington Danes labs in the Hammersmith Campus undertook the assessment as part of Imperial College London’s commitment to a more sustainable Imperial.

The Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework is an award scheme which is designed to improve sustainability within higher education teaching and research. This will mark the first Gold award in the Department of Brain Sciences.

Last year the seventh floor laboratories in the Sir Michael Uren Hub were awarded a Silver award. To get to a gold status, a sustainability champion team was brought together including members Marianna Papageorgopoulou, Chiao Lee, Janna Van Dalen, Josh Beale and Lauren Troy and led by Megan Winterbotham. To take the 7th floor labs from Silver to Gold they introduced measures such as a nitrile glove recycling scheme and ensured all the lab samples in the Ultra-Low Temperature (ULT) and –20°C freezers were well catalogued.

Megan Winterbotham, Laboratory Manager, said: “We were fortunate to start with a new empty lab so establishing sustainability practices right from the start was our top priority. One of the most challenging changes was to motivate all the lab groups to catalogue their freezers. I couldn’t have done this without the strong support of our lab sustainability champions."

"As members of the early career researcher community, it was fantastic to see that we can encourage a shift in the research culture of the department to be more sensitive towards sustainable practices." Marco Ferrari PhD Student

In 2023, the laboratories in Burlington Danes received a Bronze Award. Building on this success, a team of early career researchers including Marco Ferrari, Leire Melgosa Ecenarro and Sandra Gray-Rodriguez were assembled to achieve a Silver Award. Their focus was on promoting good practices among lab users and reducing energy consumption from high demand equipment. At an individual level, this focused on raising awareness around water usage, single use plastics and encouraging effective recycling. They also assessed the ULT Freezers and implemented operational optimisations such as only using autoclave equipment when full.

Marco Ferrari, PhD student and Early Career Researcher said “As members of the early career researcher community, it was fantastic to see that we can encourage a shift in the research culture of the department to be more sensitive towards sustainable practices. We hope that reaching this milestone will help us target even more ambitious goals in the future.”

Assessing a laboratory for the award includes a series of complex calculations based on some of the technical and specific equipment the department holds. Neil Galloway-Phillips, Senior Laboratory Manager said: “There are various calculations around waste, energy, water use we made in the application. Seeing the impact of our efforts compared to baseline levels - in both cost saving as well as the carbon reduction - was quite staggering.”

What was the single most successful change the department made? According to Neil it was warming up the Ultra-Low Temperature Freezers (ULT). The ULT freezers are made for storing biological samples, among these include samples of brain tissue used in various research studies in the department.

"Receiving these LEAF Awards marks a significant milestone and highlights the Department’s strong commitment to sustainability and environmental responsibility." Professor Marina Botto Interim Head of Department of Brain Sciences

One ULT Freezer uses the same energy per day as a three-bedroom house, so safely investigating if these temperatures can be increased, without affecting the integrity of samples inside allowed for around a 25-35% energy saving from raising the temperatures just by a few degrees.

The Department of Brain Sciences hopes in the future be one of the first departments in the Faculty of Medicine to achieve Gold LEAF award in all the laboratories spaces they occupy across campuses at Imperial.

Professor Marina Botto, Interim Head of Department said: “Receiving these LEAF Awards marks a significant milestone and highlights the Department’s strong commitment to sustainability and environmental responsibility. These accolades reflect the dedication of the laboratory teams to continuous improvement. I’m proud that the Department is setting a positive example and making a meaningful contribution toward a more sustainable future. Congratulations to both teams on these outstanding achievements.”