Do you consider sustainability when you make research decisions? Here are some interesting new initiatives and helpful tools:
- Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz has recently focussed on sustainable mobility of university employees. 2023 saw the launch of both the Carbon Tracer: CarbonTracer (uni-graz.at) and the Green Academia Award. Here you can read about measures for a climate neutral university: Klimaneutrale Uni Graz (uni-graz.at)
- In France, there is an initiative to estimate the carbon footprint of laboratories and research teams in the context of publicly funded research: 1point5 | Applications (labos1point5.org): GES 1point5, developed by Labos 1point5, is a tool aiming at calculating the carbon footprint and building the greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory of your laboratory. The goal of this tool is to carry out scientific studies relating to the carbon footprint of French public research and to bring food for thought on the levers for action to reduce the impact of research activities on GHG emissions, at the national as well as at the local level of the laboratory.
- In the UK, there are now communities of practice forming around environmentally conscious computational science: Green Algorithms | Green Algorithms (green-algorithms.org): The Green Algorithms project aims at promoting more environmentally sustainable computational science. It regroups calculators that researchers can use to estimate the carbon footprint of their projects, tips on how to be more environmentally friendly, training material, past talks etc.
How do you consider this issue when planning research, applying for funding, or in your everyday practice?