Sustainable Laboratories
SPARKHub
LEAF is best suited for "Wet Labs" and is the recommended framework for Warwick Medical School, the School of Life Science and the Department of Chemistry.
LEAF is the only framework that allows for internal verification audits within the institution. These are organised by the Energy & sustainability team and run across Term 3.
SPARKHub is a new open-access platform for greening research, launching in October 2026. The platform offers a wider range of modules that can be combined to best represent a range of research spaces.
SPARKHub utilises a see-one do-one approach to verification auditing, which operates across institutions.
GreenDiSC is a digital focused sustainable computing framework. With options for central teams and research groups, it is initially being rolled out within high performance computer spaces.
GreenDiSC is a part of the SPARKHub platform and utilises the same approach to verification auditing, which operates across institutions.
Guidance
Responsible Procurement
The purpose of this guidance is to integrate responsibility and sustainability into purchasing, while supporting the Warwick community to make climate conscious purchasing decisions.
This includes purchases being made under FP14 and FP15. This guidance intends to ensure that all purchasing decisions consider the environmental, social, and economic impacts of our activities.
Regular purchasing via catalogues have a compounding environmental impact, small changes can have an accumulative impact.
Sustainable Research
The purpose of the Sustainable Research Practice Guidance is to provide guidance, direction, information and advice to help Researchers identify their responsibilities and to raise awareness of risks and expectations when designing and conducting research.
It also aims to highlight the ethical and operational considerations affecting research practices which reflect the University’s wider commitments to environmental sustainability, ensuring that all our research and operations are conducted to the highest standards, in accordance to our environmental sustainability strategy.
Research Grants and Contracts
Full Economic Costs vs Whole Life Costs
The Full Economic Costing requires projects to "include all costs necessary to deliver the research" this, in Sustainability Language, is also known as Whole Life Costing Model.
- FP14.13"All research projects must be costed using Full Economic Costings (FEC) and include all costs necessary to deliver the research. Industry contract research should recover in excess of 100% of FEC.
The Whole Life Costing models include considerations such as the maintenance contract, and spare part availability - and expands the considerations to include wider considerations such as energy efficiency, the location of manufacture, and the proposed disposal at end of life.
We have capacity to support with advise on inclusion of sustainability considerations into tender deliverables, including emerging expectations from funders.
There are collated statements that can be added into proposals to highlight sustainability considerations, and recommendations to consider when planning proposals, and wider guidance for Responsible Procurement.
Reducing the impact of disposal
The Circular Economy is an economic model where materials are recirculated to eliminate waste and pollution.
Eliminating waste and pollution
In a circular economy, a specification for any design is that the materials re-enter the economy at the end of their use.
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Controlled or Hazardous waste - Chemical waste must be segregated and disposed of through departmental stores. Waste bottles should be labelled and cleaned fully before they are sealed for disposal.
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Electrical Waste - Fridges, freezer and other medium sized equipment can be handled through standard waste streams if not contaminated. Contact your local technical team or the Estates Help Desk.
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Packaging - Removing packaging before it enters a lab space means it can be disposed of safely through the Dry Mixed Recycling Stream.
Reusing and circulating materials
This means keeping materials in use, either as a product or, when that can no longer be used, as components or raw materials. This way, nothing becomes waste and the intrinsic value of products and materials are retained.
- Uni Green Scheme- Unused, obsolete and even broken equipment may be able to be collected and resold.
- Pipette tips - Many pipette tip manufacturers have "take back" schemes that are being coordinated through departmental stores.
- Use of LabCup to share chemicals across Schools to prevent purchases for small or trial amounts.
Impact Report 24/25
Laboratories are some of the most energy and resource intensive workspaces at the University, third-party frameworks are a great tool to help highlight the areas of opportunity for intervention, and provide a way that we can measure the positive impact.
The first framework was introduced in 20/21, and in the following years, engagement with LEAF reached across seven schools, and ninety-five laboratory spaces during 24/25. Collaboration, interventions and circular thinking, across the FSEM, have been working towards reducing the impact of the laboratory spaces on campus.
Connecting with local networks, cross campus projects and centrally managed services, can help everybody make their spaces more sustainability managed, save money and resources.
The Impact Report includes departmental summaries, and highlights some of the Best Practice examples from our Gold Labs. We hope this report demonstrates the value that this framework brings, and can inspire action within your spaces.
The most recent Impact Report can be read hereLink opens in a new window.
Academic Insights
Corre Lab
"We are always looking for ways to improve sustainability in scientific spaces and review our processes. With recent changes to research funding requirements encouraging laboratories be less resource intensive, we find that the LEAF Framework offers an easy and accessible way to integrate the interests of all parties."
Dr Dan Richmond and Dr Rebecca Quinn,
Postdoctoral researchers
School of Life Sciences
Warwick Environmental Systems Interdisciplinary CentreLink opens in a new window
"LEAF helps us to take responsibility for the environmental impact of our work and to make simple, practical changes to improve our sustainability."
Prof. Gary Bending
Deputy Head of School (Academic)
School of Life Sciences
Biophysical ChemistryLink opens in a new window
"Applying for LEAF accreditation was straightforward and helped us recognise the sustainable practices our researchers already use in their work."
Prof. Nikola Chmel
Head of the Department of Chemistry
Chemistry Department
Working with LEAF
We heard from Dr Victoria Sodré (CBRF, Department of Chemistry) in 2025, as she shared her journey with the LEAF programme and how sustainable practices were transforming the CBRF.
Victoria was a postdoctoral researcher working on the biocatalytic production of pyridines and piperidines from lignin at Warwick.
She obtained her Ph.D. in Biochemistry (2021) from the University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil. Her research interests involve developing new sustainable routes to produce chemicals from renewable feedstocks.