Project: Reducing Embodied Carbon in Purchasing

To achieve Stanford’s sustainability goals, a shift toward environmentally friendly purchasing across campus is essential, particularly in research and teaching laboratories, which heavily consume emissions-intensive and hazardous materials. While greener alternatives exist for many commonly used lab items, the adoption of pro-environmental purchasing behaviors is influenced by a range of factors. By reducing the embodied carbon in purchased goods through sustainable procurement practices, Stanford labs can contribute to minimizing their environmental impact while maintaining excellence in research and innovation.

Project Goals

The researchers planned to bridge the gap between research advancement in chemistry labs and sustainable purchasing by achieving the following objectives

• Creation of an effective supplier-engagement program facilitating the transition to sustainable alternatives for specific product categories, namely pipette tips and tubes, as well as chloroform and dichloromethane (DCM)
• In-depth exploration of the factors impeding the adoption of sustainable alternatives for chloroform and DCM, such as 2MeTHF or Cyrene, and the formulation of a structured plan to address these barriers
• Investigation into the most effective behavioral psychology strategies to encourage the transition to sustainable alternatives, utilizing concepts such as authority, consistency, and social proof
• Reduction in the overall purchase of pipettes across various labs on campus
• Assessment of the applicability and potential benefits of implementing Millipore Sigma’s sustainability assessment tool within Stanford labs

Project Achievements

The researchers interviewed over 20 individuals, including master’s and PhD students, principal investigators, and lab procurers, and reached out to over 600 pipette purchasers to promote the switch from plastic to recycled pipette tips and tubes. A key challenge identified is the difficulty of changing a culture where many experiments depend on existing materials, making it akin to asking a baker to replace all-purpose flour with almond flour—resulting in a product that isn’t the same.

However, while it may be challenging to change ongoing experiments, we have the potential to influence future research by integrating sustainable practices into lab training modules for new graduate and PhD students at Stanford.

Project Takeaways

This project offers the opportunity to transform how experiments are conducted at Stanford and educate the next generation of researchers. By replacing DCM and chloroform with 2MeTHF, we could reduce emissions by 17.5 MTCO2e/year, equivalent to 44,862 miles driven, and switching to recycled pipettes could save 26 pounds of crude oil per case. It is important to understand the priorities of different labs—some may focus on sustainability, others on medical breakthroughs. The success of a project like this depends on diverse connections across the campus.

What’s Next?

The Responsible Purchasing Program and the Office of Sustainability are working to partner with teaching labs to introduce greener alternatives into in-class experiments, as well as integrating updated sustainable purchasing content for labs into the Responsible Purchasing Guidelines and safety training offered by the National Institutes of Health.

Project Team

PRIMARY PARTNER: Office of the Vice President for Business Affairs and Chief Financial Officer

COLLABORATING PARTNERS: Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, Stanford Zero Waste