Green Labs Guelph
Green Labs Guelph
Green Labs Guelph, housed within the Sustainability Office, is a student-led initiative working to make campus labs more sustainable.
Green Labs Guelph promotes sustainable laboratory practices by encouraging proper waste diversion and recycling, good equipment management, responsible energy use, sustainable procurement to reduce single-use plastics, and integrating educational outreach on sustainability into social and departmental events.
Green Labs Guelph started from the initial idea to create a lab coat reuse program to promote sustainability and reuse amongst science students.
The program is in partnership with the University of Guelph Bookstore. The Bookstore sells the reused lab coats at a discounted rate to incoming students, providing a sustainable alternative to purchasing a new lab coat.
To date, the program has rehomed over 350 lab coats and is working to grow the impact and scale of the program.
The program works by having incoming students purchase a reused lab coat, which they use for their UofG courses. Once students are finished using their lab coats (either a reused one or their new one), they can return them to Green Labs Guelph at one of the pop-up collective drive events throughout March and April. Lab coats can also be dropped off at the UofG Sustainability Office (Blackwood Hall). If you want to arrange a donation drop-off time, please email sustainability@uoguelph.ca.
A $5.00 gift card/voucher is provided to those donating their coats at a collection drive to share appreciation for those contributing their lab coats to the program. Donated lab coats must be wearable (no tears, no massive stains, etc.).
All collected coats are sorted through for acceptability and then sent off to be professionally washed and sanitized - thanks to the support of the Chemistry Stockroom. Once returned, lab coats are packaged using twine, given reuse lab coat labels and given to the University of Guelph Bookstore, where they are sold to incoming students.
Proceeds from the lab coat sales go to supporting Green Labs Guelph's work and the program's expansion, making it a social enterprise.
Since the creation of the lab coat reuse program, Green Labs Guelph has expanded to other focuses and initiatives, including a partnership with several labs to recycle gloves.
Over four skids worth of gloves (thousands of gloves) have been sent to Kimberly Clark for proper recycling.
Want to help green labs on campus? Green Labs Guelph is open to all University of Guelph students, staff and faculty.
Anyone can join as a general member to volunteer for an initiative, access resources to implement sustainability initiatives in their labs, and network with other members.
Those who'd like to be more involved can join one of GLG's subcommittees (finance/funding, marketing/communications, projects, and outreach). The committees and general members are overseen by a board of executive members, who help coordinate Green Labs Guelph's activities.
Please email greenlabs@uoguelph.ca AND sustainability@uoguelph.ca with a short statement of interest if you'd like to get involved.
Are you interested in greening your lab? Connect with us and book a virtual consultation session with the UofG Sustainability Office and Green Labs Guelph to discuss how to green your lab, including what supports and funding opportunities are available.