Hi All, Does anyone have any ready made facts and figures about using less water in a lab?
Many thanks,
Rajnika
Crick
Hi Rajnika,
Please find a copy of our sustainable lab good practice guide. There is some details in there on water savings in a lab.
kind regards
Lee
Thanks for sharing Lee – really good guide 
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Thank you Lee!
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Uni of Liverpool have also done a sustainable labs guide with some useful figures in there https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/media/livacuk/sustainability/Sustainable,Laboratory,Guide.pdf
Thank you!
Hi all,
Related to this, does anyone have info on carbon footprint of the different water types?
Thanks!
Poppy
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January 6Uni of Liverpool have also done a sustainable labs guide with some useful figures in there https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/media/livacuk/sustainability/Sustainable,Laboratory,Guide.pdf
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Does anyone have any experience with Lab armour beads or generic alternatives? We’ve been looking into them within the sustainability team to suggest to labs but the Lab Armour beads do seem incredibly expensive. I’ve seen mention of using more generic metallic beads / shot pellets but unsure if these would be as effective.
Any thoughts or experience appreciated, Thanks!
I’ve just done a quick search on impact of producing grade water for bio and pharma industry and found 2 research articles. There are also some product articles on the web. I have not had time to read in details nor digest, but this could be a useful start… ??
https://doi.org/10.1002/cite.202300152
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cesx.2020.100083
Many thanks to those who have shared guides. I was already aware of the one from Lee (excellent), but also really like the Liverpool guide and the summary slide on water + all the measures done in house on impact!!
Hi Katherine,
Quick reply to say I recall seeing some energy savings figures associated with the beads when compared to the water baths. They also negate the need for using chemicals to disinfect the water (which over time might be a cost saver). They’re a bit slower to warm things up, but still functional.
Not sure about non-lab armour versions though.
Best, Martin
Hi Poppy/All
The figures in the papers Maggie shared are a good starting basis, but I would also suggest a note of caution. If you’re purchasing treated water, these plus the transport emissions are probably fairly accurate, but the different national energy mixes, and the scale of industrial production is likely to be quite different from what you would produce at a university. Where you’re producing it on site the main factors will likely be the efficiency of the equipment you use to produce it, and the impact of the chemicals involved (if any). You may find that you can get this information from the technical sheets from the manufacturers (for equipment and chemicals), and then you just need to plug in the DEFRA conversion factors for energy and water (or most water suppliers publish their own conversion factors for water if you want increased accuracy)
Hi Katherine,
We are using lab armour beads as substitute for ice with no issues. You still need to add the cold block as that what is keeping the beads cold. They were already there when I started so not sure if there was conversation of switching from ice, but I can ask around if that is useful.
Ana
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This is the first time I am hearing of using beads for cold 
very interesting - can you explain better how you do it please?
Cheers,
Maggy
Hi Maggy,
Ahh interesting, I assumed that was a standard thing! We have beads in the rubber containers of different shapes which we store in the cold room. When you need it, you take out, place the ice block inside and do your work.
This sounds interesting - would it be possible to share a photo to help visualise the process?
Yes of course, Ill snap some tomorrow!
Hope this is helpful https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77G6kMLDUQE
This is very interesting Ana!! Any rough idea of how long they keep your reagents cool?
Have you establish some dos and don’ts for their applications?
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This sounds interesting - would it be possible to share a photo to help visualise the process?
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We did not actually test the temperatures ourselves as far as I know, but I would say my samples stay cold for at least half a day, and if I need to leave the lab, I would put the bucker with beads/ samples into the fridge. You can also replace your cold block later on.
The main do is to put the ice pack in, as we found sometimes people forget to do it, and return buckets/ beads back to the cold room/ fridge after use.
I found this on the lab Armor website: Chill Bucket™ | Lab Armor
