LabRATS Best Practices

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Procurement

When procuring equipment, instruments, or materials, it is important to take a step back and consider the following points. Learn and share these best practices to reduce the need to make new purchases.

 

Before purchasing:

  • Consider questions like: is this necessary? Can I fix it? Can I instead share its use with others?
  • Check out the Shared Instrumentation Site here.
  • Check out a list of Sustainable Procurement Guidelines put together by the Sustainability Procurement Team.
  • Check out UCSB Surplus Sales for anything you might need to obtain.
  • Check out the EPEAT Registry to help cross out computers that may have any unwanted toxic chemicals.

 

When purchasing:

  • Consider the appropriate size for the needs of the lab. This is especially relevant for autoclaves, ovens, and cold storage.
  • Inquire the sales rep for energy and water-efficient models. 
  • Consult with LabRATS for advice on selecting instruments with environmentally-conscious features.
  • In sum, look for right-size, water-saving, energy-saving, material-saving models.

 

Education Modules

Another way to ensure that you are buying the best product available is to make sure not to fall for the Seven Sins of Greenwashing! This past year, we created an educational module on how to avoid falling for these sins, which can be found below. While knowing what the Seven Sins are can be helpful in understanding how companies can trick you, understanding how to read eco-labels can also help. For example, the ACT label is not used to certify whether or not a product meets a certain criteria, but rather it is used for understanding how a product lies on a certain scale. The ACT label looks at the item's shipping impact, water consumption, packaging content, etc. We also made an educational module to explain more about the ACT label and other environmentally conscious labels, which can be found down below!

 

Purchasing Guides

One of our projects from a couple of years ago involved making Purchasing Guides for for different electronic equipment, such as biosafety cabinets and incubators!If you are looking into buying one of these projects for your lab and are unsure about which one to pick, please use the purchasing guides below!

 

Future Project: Procurement Shopping List

We are currently working on a new project where we comb through different suppliers and find sustainable procurement options for labs to use. From this, we are creating a shopping list that labs will be able to use as a shortcut to find the times they need for their labs. the shopping list will cover consumables and electronics, so keep an eye out for this project launch!