LEAF Case Studies

LEAF was conceived at UCL, who ran a pilot in 2018-2020, across 23 Institutions in UK. These included Imperial, Edinburgh, Bristol, Cambridge, KCL and Nottingham. 235 groups took part.

The pilot reported £3700 annual savings per group per annum, £641K total savings from the 2-year pilot and 648t CO²e avoided (the equivalent of taking 140 cars off the road in a year).

Once an Institution is signed up, local administrators are appointed to enable areas set groups to access the framework and the tools provided, which include templates, best practice, monitoring frameworks and audit tools.  LEAF has a tiered approach, Bronze, Silver and Gold, with each tier building on the last.

Example targets for Bronze Award include:

• Local Inductions refer to Sustainability practice
• Exit-policies – dealing with samples / chemicals no longer needed
• There are non-clinical waste streams available
• Equipment being turned off at the end of the day
• Consider sustainability when buying equipment
• Have signage encouraging good-practice on fume cupboards
• Have a common shared space for chemicals

Pilot Trial

The pilot group at the University of Liverpool was a mix of academic and technical staff who volunteered to engage with the LEAF framework. Twenty labs across the University signed up to the pilot with the aim of achieving bronze certification, eleven areas in HLS and nine in S&E.

At the end of the pilot; seven areas in HLS and seven areas in S&E achieved bronze .  The pilot completion rate of 70% demonstrated positive engagement with the scheme.  The remaining labs continue to work to Bronze status, and are expected to complete this in a few months.

Pilot participants

Faculty of Health and Life Sciences participants

Dr Ainhoa Mielgo-Iza, Mr Gregor Govan, Molecular and Clinical Cancer Medicine, Institute of Systems, Molecular and Integrative Biology

Dr Adam Burke, Dr Nigel Gotts, Prof. Roy Goodacre - Centre for Metabolomics Research, Liverpool Shared Research facilities 

Dr Kris D’Aout, Ms Sherrin Gotru, Dr Blandine Poulet, - Musculoskeletal and Ageing Science, Institute of Life Course and Medical Sciences. 

Dr Kyle Doherty, Ms Gaia Lugano - Eye and Vision Sciences, Institute of Life Course and Medical Sciences.

Dr Sam Williams, Mrs Lisa Heathcote, Mr Alan Carter- Women and Children’s Health Research labs, Institute of Life Course and Medical Sciences 

Dr Sam Williams, Mrs Jenny Hawkes, Mrs Sarah Northey, Mrs Rachel Corkhill, Institute in the Park, Alder Hey, Institute of Life Course and Medical Sciences 

Mrs Jenna Lowe - Infection Biology and Microbiome labs iC2, Institute of Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences 

Faculty of Science and Engineering participants

Mrs Jenny Bradley – OSL and Roxby Labs, Geography, School of Environmental Sciences

Mr Steve Chappell, Ms Lynne Chapman, Dr Stephen Brough - Central Teaching Labs 

Mr Leo Gould and Dr Jon Mercer – OAA Lab, Materials Innovation Factory 

Mr David Donaghy – BUSE Lab, School of Electrical Engineering, Mr Tony Topping, Mr James Evans, Active Learning Lab, School of Engineering, Mr Mark Hunter, Ms Erin Myles, Mr Steven Bode – D’Sa Labs, School of Engineering

Further information

Since the Pilot, labs across the campus have continued to sign up or go on to achieve higher levels of award, see the full list below:

If you would like to find out more information about the LEAF Pilot, please contact Technical Development and Planning Officer, Jan Brett at: Janet.Brett@liverpool.ac.uk

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