Earlham Institute recognised for collaborative efforts to improve sustainability

Green Impact is a United Nations award-winning programme designed to support environmentally and socially sustainable practice within organisations. It empowers staff and students to create positive sustainability changes within their workplaces and at home.

The Earlham Institute joined the Green Impact scheme in 2022, joining efforts with the John Innes Centre, Quadram Institute, The Sainsbury Laboratory and Norwich Bioscience Institutes (NBI) Partnership.

Volunteers from across the Institute - including Operations, Research Faculty, and the Technology Platforms - worked together on a range of initiatives and activities that were part of the submission.

The team were also recognised for a special project award which saw the Institute run an energy “switch-off” campaign. 

Led by Jim Lipscombe, Senior Research Assistant in the Technical Genomics Group, the project involved measuring electrical consumption of devices in offices and labs - while noting any devices left switched on - and encouraging staff to switch off unused devices.

“We were delighted to discover that the staff and students at the Earlham Institute are already doing a great job of switching off devices and have a good awareness of the issue. However, opportunities for improvement were certainly evident,” said Jim.

“We have about 120 staff at Earlham Institute. If just 1 in 10 of us left our computers on all the time we would waste enough electricity to power an average UK household for 9 months.” 

After a period of two months, with regular engagement activities and reminders to staff, the project team were able to report a 24% reduction in hourly wastage, with the most notable reduction of 50% in the number of computers being left on in the labs. 

“An understanding of how labs and offices are used is important in improving behaviours in relation to energy use," added Jim. 

"We learned that there are particular working areas where compliance is better than others; this is to some degree related to the nature of the work being undertaken or to the degree to which a space is shared by multiple users.

"With this knowledge, we are better equipped to focus efforts where they can have the greatest impact.“

Earlier this year the Institute also became a signatory to the Concordat for the Environmental Sustainability of Research and Innovation Practice.

Coordinated by Wellcome, the Concordat is a sector-wide initiative bringing together universities, institutes, catapults, and funding organisations, to take shared action in making fundamental changes to the way research is conducted.

The priority areas outlined in the Concordant closely align with the Earlham Institute’s Environmental policy and the Norwich Bioscience Institutes’ Sustainability Strategy.