The mission of the UCR’s Green Labs group is to promote the reduction of the energy and resource waste created by laboratories at UCR without disturbing the objectives of research. Green Labs works with lab managers, principal investigators, as well as students working in labs, to guide their laboratories into becoming energy efficient and sustainable.

Objectives:

• Educate lab personnel on lab waste and sustainable agriculture 
• Understand barriers to green lab practice
• Offer easy and effortless options to reduce waste with little buy-in from researchers 
• Empower researchers to be strong advocates for sustainability 
• Create lab space that promotes sustainable practices. 

Initiatives:

• Building wide interactive workshops for educating and discussing green labs and barriers to sustainable science
• Sustainable Science online modules in collaboration with EH&S
• Green Labs certification program
• Reducing Material Waste (Sharing program, don’t buy in bulk)
• North American Freezer Challenge
• Incentives for participants at every level