Dr. Kerstin Hermuth-Kleinschmidt

Sustainability for Life Sciences is at the core of my work. I’m supporting research institutions in making their research more sustainable as well as offering support to companies from the life sciences sector to realize the transformation into a sustainable company. However, my main focus is on sustainable lab work.
If you take a closer look at the research and lab work, it becomes clear that this work is very resource-intensive. On average, a freezer consumes as much energy as a single-family house and 3-5 liters of tap water are needed to produce one liter of lab water. In 2014, all life science labs worldwide produced about 5.5 million tons of plastic waste. And these are just some numbers. On the other hand, it seems difficult to change the lab work: methods are established, routines are in place, and single-use plastic cannot be easily replaced in your experiments. But there are opportunities and starting points for every lab to make its work more sustainable.
In my workshops and lectures, I share best practice examples and hands-on support on specific aspects of sustainability in laboratory and research work. Laboratories and research institutions receive help and support to identify individual starting points, implement changes and make research and laboratory work more resource-efficient, economical and safe.
However, a change in laboratory processes also needs the support of companies in the life sciences sector. Sustainable products and services are needed, as is anchoring of sustainability in the strategic approach of companies. This is another focus of my work. As a member of EGNATON (European Association for Sustainable Laboratory Technologies), for example, I have been involved in the development of the EGNATON CERT certification standard and I am also part of the auditing team.