RI-MUHC ANNUAL REPORT 2023

OUR SUSTAINABLE RESEARCH INITIATIVES

LABORATORY SPRING CLEAN-UP: TAKING CONCRETE ACTION ACROSS THE RI-MUHC

In collaboration with the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) Sustainability Committee, the Technical Services team at the Research Institute of the MUHC (RI-MUHC) is taking concrete action to reduce the environmental footprint of our organization. Across the RI-MUHC, engineers and specialists from Technical Services work with research teams to deal sustainably with waste, including unneeded equipment, electronics, furniture, metals, used batteries and more.

The annual laboratory spring clean-up is one such sustainability initiative. Organized in conjunction with Earth Day, this event reminds the research community that lab work is not only safer and more pleasant in a clean and organized space; it is also more sustainable. An external recycling firm, MultiRecycle, was able to safely redirect materials away from landfill and recuperate much of the discarded material this spring. In its report for the RI-MUHC, MultiRecycle noted that 493 kilograms of electronic materials were triaged, as well as 1,420 kg of appliances containing freon, 3,126 kg of residual materials (including fibre, glass and metals), 27 kg of batteries and 42 kg of various plastics.

WINNER OF THE INTERNATIONAL FREEZER CHALLENGE AT MCGILL UNIVERSITY

In 2023 the McGill Office of Sustainability selected the Specimen Processing Laboratory at the RI-MUHC Centre for Innovative Medicine (CIM) as first-place winner of the International Freezer Challenge among all the university’s participants. Principal investigators, trainees and lab managers at McGill University joined more than 1,900 labs in 27 countries, implementing sustainable management practices for fridges and freezers such as inventory management and regular defrosting, thus saving significant amounts of energy, space and money.

The Specimen Processing Laboratory at CIM was also the first laboratory to be certified Platinum under McGill’s new Sustainable Lab Certification program.

RI-MUHC laboratory wins the International Freezer Challenge at McGill University
Centre for Innovative Medicine (RI-MUHC)
MultiRecycle
Sustainable Lab Certification (McGill University)