Carbon Footprint of the Analytical Laboratory and the Three-Dimensional Approach to Its Reduction

What is the carbon footprint of a common HPLC instrument per one measurement? How much will it increase when we use a mass detector instead of a spectrophotometer? What is the carbon footprint of an average laboratory in comparison to a household, petrol and electric cars, and group of people breathing simultaneously? How much do these results depend on the specifics of energy production in a given country? Is it possible to ensure the carbon neutrality of an advanced analytical method by using dedicated solar and wind farms? How large infrastructure is needed to supply the entire laboratory with green energy? What are the most reasonable activities which should be realized in the near future to reduce the environmental impact of analytical laboratories? This article attempts to answer these questions. The predictions are based on the simple measurements of the electricity consumption for selected laboratory instruments (separation techniques) and the commonly available statistical reports. The presented outcomes allow to imagine the magnitude of laboratory-related emissions. A future perspective is shown and discussed, embracing the three-dimensional space of possible efforts and the inclusion of energy consumption and associated carbon footprint as a mandatory validation criterion of new analytical methods.