Let us know if you are interested in any of the great projects below.  If you have 3 hours per week to put into any of these and have an international positive impact for sustainability, please contact me at DebraRowe@aya.yale.edu.
1) Laboratory Waste Management Guide
The Laboratory Waste Landfill Diversion Working Group of the International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories (I2SL) is developing a guide to reduce the type and quantities of laboratory waste streams. Get involved as a professional volunteer to help create this guide by working with the group’s co-chairs to identify target waste streams, the potential recyclables involved, purchasing policies to support the guide, and creating the guide itself (http://i2sl.org/working/labwaste.html). The working group members have developed substantial information about their own laboratories which will serve as a foundation for the guide. 

2) The International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories (I2SL) is planning a series of Town Hall meetings for panelists to discuss the many facets of emergency and extended laboratory closures. The issues to be included will consider at least continuity planning, operational requirements, remote and on-site access, and health and safety protocols.  I2SL has engaged a team of academic, corporate and government laboratory managers to develop this series.

Please contact us if you want to help with this. The candidate must have laboratory management experience as well as good communication and organizational skills.  This is a position that will last no more than 6-8 months.
3) I2SL’s Sustainable Laboratory Improvement Maturity Matrix Working Group (http://i2sl.org/working/continuousperformance.html)
This effort has been underway for 5-6 years and has been led by a laboratory manager from UC Davis, now an officer of I2SL’s Atlanta Chapter.  I believe the system, or matrix, is ready to be tested in a laboratory institution.  However, to do so, potential test sites (likely university clients) needs to be identified, introduced and encouraged to undertake the trial testing of the matrix.  The Fellow could be engaged to introduce the matrix, coordinate with the institutions’ senior executives, and implement the matrix process with the various managers in specific responsibility centers of lab management (e.g., PIs, budget, operations, purchasing, EH&S and others).

If you help with any of the above, we are glad to have you be a Fellow (unpaid but otherwise richly rewarded for sustainability impact) for the Higher Education Associations Sustainability Consortium.  If you don’t want the title, but still want to contribute to the work, that is okay too.  When you contact me, let me know which project(s) you are interested in.  Thanks!

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Debra Rowe, Ph.D.
 
Co-founder and Program Director