Monday, September 8, 2008

A message from the Boss


Doing science in a way that is respectful to the environment may seem like a lost cause. After all, most of the daily supplies we use are designed to be thrown away. Furthermore, since time is money, if we can do something faster we generally do it even if it involves throwing away more stuff (think using a kit instead of buying reagents in bulk). Nonetheless, we believe it should be possible to make some changes in the way we do things that does not compromise the science we do, while still reducing the amount of waste/pollution we produce.

I asked Earthmuffin (who works for me) to setup this blog to share with everyone all the things that we are trying do in our lab to reduce waste. The idea is that even if we all do a little, it can still add up to a lot. For example, if everybody gets a double-sided printer, we can significantly reduce the amount of paper we use. This doesn't only make sense from an environmental perspective, but also financially. In these hard times, every PI should be thinking about ways to save money too.

Since Earthmuffin spends a little extra time each time we order supplies figuring out which item is least polluting, she will regularly post her findings here for everyone to see. As this blog gets indexed, we hope it can become a reference for anyone else concerned about scientific waste and the environment.

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