Green Lab Certification

• Collaboration & networking: create connections with internal and external stakeholders not typical in day-to-day operations
• Professional development: develop project management, organization and leadership skills – add it to your resume!
• Making an impact: reduce personal and organizational environmental impact, and support continuous improvement, rethinking how things have always been done

The lab lead role will require an estimated 2-3 hours per month, depending on the certification phase. We welcome multiple members of the same lab to share the roles and responsibilities.

Anyone working in the lab may be suited to being the lab lead, including lab managers, technicians, post-docs, undergraduates, graduates, technicians, research associates and PIs. A typical lab lead:

• Is familiar with and performs day-to-day lab operations
• Regularly communicates and collaborates with lab members
• Is passionate about sustainability 

As a lab lead, you will:

• Complete your lab's self-assessments to evaluate and improve operational practices
• Facilitate sustainability meetings and discussions with your lab group
• Guide your team through survey participation and feedback processes
• Coordinate your lab’s activities and new sustainability initiatives 

The program assesses a lab’s performance in the following ways:

1. Engagement Survey – a mobile-friendly, 12-minute survey to engage lab personnel towards sustainability
2. Assessment Tool – a survey that tracks the lab’s certification goals and actions
3. Impact Estimator – calculates waste, water, energy, carbon and financial savings to track progress and ROI
4. 3^rd Party Verification – a risk-based review of survey and assessment tool data in which documentation will be requested for a small subset of questions

There are five levels of certification: bronze, silver, gold, platinum, and green.  The level of certification is determined by the score on the certification assessments.  It reflects both the percentage of possible green lab best practices that have been adopted and the extent to which they have been adopted by the lab.

The My Green Lab Certification partners with Impact Laboratories, an independent third-party organization, to verify results and ensure the certification meets international best practices and delivers measurable impact. The process involves a risk-based review of survey and assessment tool data in which documentation will be requested for a small subset of questions. For more information, please visit the Impact Laboratories Website.

Throughout the certification process, lab leads will have access to a dedicated project management platform designed specifically for the assessment. Other support includes a range of online and in-person resources, including lab-customized recommendations, blog posts, workshops, and networking opportunities with peers and sustainability professionals across campus. In addition, UBC Green Labs offers additional resources and incentives, such as the Green Labs Fund, to help support and advance sustainability initiatives within labs.

'Lab personnel' refers to all members of the lab, from PIs and lab managers to technicians and student researchers. While upwards of 90% participation is recommended, at least 50% of lab personnel must complete 2 engagement surveys (baseline and certification) for a lab to receive its certification. Ideally, discussions, planning and implementation will also involve lab personnel. 

Recertification takes place 2 years from the certification date, and the baseline step does not need to be repeated.

The certification program for academic labs is valued at USD 500 per lab. At UBC, this cost will be fully subsidized by Sustainability & Engineering, provided that labs complete the entire certification process, enabling labs to embed ongoing sustainable practices into their culture.