The University’s geography laboratories have been certified as operating to a Gold standard in the Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework (LEAF). 

The University is committed to environmental sustainability goals as set out in the Environmental Sustainability Strategy. This includes driving efficiencies across laboratory spaces, and one way we measure this is through the Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework (LEAF). 

Followed by 85 global institutions, LEAF is a standard established by UCL to improve the sustainability and efficiency of laboratories. Assessment is across five categories: waste, people, sample and chemical management, equipment and ventilation. Institutions can achieve Bronze, Silver or Gold certification depending on how many sustainability actions they take. 

“As a Geography lab, where much of our work is environmental study, we feel it’s important to lead by example in respect of efficiency and environmental impact,” commented Jon Yarwood, Geography Laboratory Technician. “Through the audit we’ve worked through our Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) to see where we can improve our reduction, reuse and recycling of chemicals and equipment and tested methods where we felt it could be appropriate, and in turn we’ve found where we can improve efficiency of processes”. 

Dr Anke Bernau, Associate Dean for Environmental Sustainability in the Faculty of Humanities said: “This is a fantastic achievement, building on work around environmental sustainability that colleagues in the lab were already doing before LEAF. The University of Manchester’s aim is for all its laboratories to achieve a LEAF award and adopt the 6R ‘responsible plastics protocol’ by August 2025. Jon and the team are leading the way and we’re very proud of their work.”