The IDIBAPS Committee on Sustainability has drawn up a document that includes the institution’s Sustainability Strategy and its Action Plan for 2025 and 2026. You can read it by clicking here. The strategy includes three main objectives:
- Promoting good practices: implementing improvements and new measures both in the laboratories and in the rest of the institution with a focus on energy, supplies, waste, water and mobility.
- Involving and raising awareness: communicating the urgency and need to change behaviours and practices in research to incorporate a culture of sustainability.
- Networking: working together with other national and international institutions to exchange good practices, learn from each other and influence the most significant stakeholders.
To achieve these objectives, different actions have been proposed for the next two years, including, but not limited to:
- Energy: studying energy consumption in the institution; changing freezer temperatures from -80º or 75º to -70ºC; updating laboratory lighting systems with more efficient alternatives; installing solar panels in the Esther Koplowitz Centre (CEK); and promoting the purchase of energy-efficient products and equipment.
- Water: promoting the responsible use of ultrapure water in laboratories.
- Waste: improving plastic recycling and promoting the exchange and reuse of products.
- Mobility: reducing the number of trips and raising awareness of the carbon footprint involved.
Communication on sustainability issues will also be encouraged and activities will be carried out to promote awareness among all IDIBAPS professionals. There is also a desire to actively participate in the SuRe network, which includes several Catalan research centres. Sustainability-related activities will be organised with the rest of the organisations of the Campus Clínic.
