To summarise the aim of the challenge is to: Raise awareness of the energy costs of running freezers. Warm up freezers from -80 o C to -70 o C. Saving 10-25% of energy costs. With the agreement of the freezer owner and based on evidence that this will not affect samples. Retire old freezers and if necessary replace with greener versions, improve maintenance regimes and encourage freezer sharing. Maintenance schemes have been shown to reduce up to 10% of the running costs and improve freezer life. Develop a greater understanding of sample storage needs based on the scientific evidence, i.e. often samples do not need to be stored at -80 o C and higher temperatures will suffice. Raise environmental awareness in laboratories across the School of Medicine. Improve the sample management and location of freezers and develop better inventory systems. Besides the reduction in costs this will also help in achieving the targets set for Universities of a 3% year on year reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from as listed in WAG’s Climate Change Strategy for Wales (October 2010)

Freezer Challenge… Date July-August 2011 The Challenge Is to reduce and rationalize usage of ULT freezers. (As agreed by the School Executive) Prizes are kindly donated by VWR Location All owners of ULT freezers are invited to take part Additional Info: Join up and you’ll receive the information pack Join Us! Its Easy Contact Name Address Join us for this challenge.. For example by simply warming up our freezers a little and by ensuring that they are functioning to capacity we could save between 10 – 30% of their running costs. Similar challenges to this are being run by a number of Universities in the USA such as Harvard, UC-Davis and Colorado. See the information sheet. We’ll probably be the first in the UK to carry out such an initiative. Just sign up, with the permission of freezer owner (one person per freezer to coordinate the challenge as agreed by the users of the freezer) Please could each challenge coordinator send an to Dr Clive Gregory (SoM Eco-Champion) and you will receive information regarding the challenge. Many thanks! Plug in to the freezer challenge! You are also invited to a VWR presentation concerning energy monitoring and energy saving throughout the laboratory and office environment at am on Friday 22 nd July in Lecture 2, Main Building, Heath Campus.

Not only does it save money, energy and improve freezer life it also makes good laboratory sense… Turn this…. Into This…. Its also an opportunity to improve the University’s people and planet green league position- currently 130/138, the second lowest in Wales