Local Greenlab Hubs in NL

Greenlabs is driven by grassroot movements. Locally, green teams or sustainability initiatives unite to collectively drive meaningful change within their institute, organisation, campus or science park. Below, we showcase some of these collective efforts and explore how they organize and make an impact.

The University of Groningen has always been in the lead on lab sustainability in the Netherlands. There green labs initiatives also started small as a grassroot movement, and has grown out to a huge network with representatives in all departments of the university. From the Faculty of Science and Engineering, a widely acclaimed paper was published last year. They also maintain and update a GreenLab guidebook annually and have actively contributed to the pilot of the GreenDiSC program. Soon, they will share more information and internal documents to inspire the greenlabs community.

All University Medical Centers (UMCs) in the Netherlands signed the Green Deal Sustainable Healthcare, which includes clear targets to reduce waste, emission and resources in the coming years. As part of a recently awarded grant, every Dutch UMC now has one or more dedicated colleagues working on lab sustainability. Members of this working group collectively work towards set deliverables, including freezer- and data challenges, a report on how sustainability is embedded within ISO audits and a further progression of sustainability initiatives in laboratories within the UMCs. More information on this project will be uploaded here later this year.

Get in touch and we can share your local initiatives!