UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Three Penn State undergraduate students who participate in the University’s Sustainable Labs Program were invited to Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s (HHMI) Janelia Research Campus in April to help make the facility’s research labs more sustainable. Ella Clobes, Gavin Maxson and Kay Smith, all members of the program’s Sustainable Lab Consultant (SLC) cohort, spent two days at Janelia on April 4 and 5, where they advised researchers on how to implement changes to evaluate and improve lab efficiency and resource management.
“The fact that a large institution like HHMI specifically sought out Penn State students’ views on sustainability because of what we've accomplished with the Sustainable Labs Program so far demonstrates the evolution of what can happen when you have a great idea,” said Gavin Maxson, a fourth-year student studying agricultural engineering. “The collaboration amongst students, staff, facility members and researchers produces a unique opportunity that people really want to emulate in their facilities.”
The SLC program is aimed at addressing the inherent sustainability issues found in research labs. By consulting with undergraduates knowledgeable in sustainability, researchers can arrive at solutions that otherwise might not have been considered.
Smith, a fourth-year student majoring in agricultural and biorenewable systems management, added that when the team arrived at Janelia, they quickly learned that the staff there were passionate about starting a sustainable lab program, but didn’t know where to begin.
“We gave them direction and showed them good places to start, which we’ve learned from our experiences,” she said. “This provided them an opportunity to brainstorm and work through possibilities with a team who had done this before."
Penn State’s SLC program is an engaged scholarship approach to creating a more sustainable research lab culture and operation, while preparing researchers to build a more sustainable world in their future careers. The Sustainable Labs Program is partnered with the nonprofit My Green Lab and uses their certification program that assesses 14 target areas for behavioral change.
After two days on the research campus, the team came up with a solution: a to-do list. The steps are focused on sustainability but they are not difficult, meaning the researchers do not need to go out of their way to do them, and the research teams will receive points for each objective they meet. This program, implemented over a four- to six-month period, will incentivize healthy competition amongst the labs while concurrently incentivizing sustainability-based improvements.
“They also wanted to learn from us how we motivate researchers, how we convince them to implement sustainable changes in their labs and how we create behavior changes,” said Ella Clobes, a fourth-year student majoring in geology. “We focused on competition between the research labs, and that's how the point system was developed, through this checklist and survey of ideas for sustainability changes that they could do.”
Additionally, Maxson let the researchers know about specific solutions like incorporating motion and sash height sensors. These sensors, already used in many Penn State labs, are designed to solve an efficiency problem with chemical fume hoods. When a certain amount of time has elapsed, the sensor sounds an alarm so that researchers don’t accidentally leave the hoods open, wasting critical energy and driving up resource costs.
After their trip, Clobes, Maxon and Smith shared their experience with the rest of their SLC cohort.
“Every lab runs into challenges in operating sustainably. We're able to provide a to-do list for how to address them,” Smith said. “I think it's just proof that this program is doing what it intended to do — doing it very, very well — and deserves to have the full support of Penn State behind it.”
Krista Bailey, associate director for campus sustainability and SLC trainer, highlighted the significance of having the students work with researchers at Janelia.
"This was a great opportunity for our students to share what they have learned and done over the past two to three years in Penn State's Sustainable Labs Program,” Bailey said. “Their insights about systems, engagement and data tracking were a great gift to share with a campus that is just beginning their own program. They helped Janelia develop a custom program that will work and grow with them."
Clobes and Smith have spent two years with the SLC program, while Maxson has been with the program since it started in 2022. All three praised its value as an asset to the University with great potential reach.
“It’s cool to see that our efforts here at Penn State are going beyond us. And our goals and our impacts are things that other people are trying to accomplish, as well,” Clobes said. “This experience was reassuring and a good kind of motivation.”
The trip marks another success for the SLC program after being internationally recognized in 2023 by the International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories (I2SL) with an honorable mention in its Sustainable Laboratory Awards program.
“I've been involved with the Sustainable Labs Program since they started allowing undergraduate students into labs to experience it," Maxson said. "It is unique, and the consultants are unlike anything any other institution like Penn State is doing around the country.”