Environmental work
Since 2004 Tjärnö Marine Laboratory is environmentally certified. It means that we are constantly improving our operation with a view to reducing any negative environmental impact and supporting the positive effects for sustainable development gained through research, education and cooperation with the surrounding society.
Environmental activities
Based on the environmental targets and strategies for the University of Gothenburg we work with different activities specific for the Tjärnö Laboratory in purpose of reaching the goals. The activities are decided by the combined environmental work and health and safety group at the Tjärnö Laboratory.
At the moment we are focusing in three areas:
- We give possibilities for good hybrid meetings, among others a reconstruction of parts of the library into meeting rooms has been realized.
- We install solar panels on the dining hall building.
- We are planning for a new research vessel to replace Nereus. The process is on-going.
A lot of our environmental work is accomplished in collaboration with Akademiska Hus, our property owner.
Annually we are following the development of our environmental impact and work on a long-term basis to reduce it the negative part of it. Some results from previous years:
During 2022 we were many active employees, and also the total amount of waste was lower compared to previous years. The compost fraction is not included for 2022 because our compost facility was not in use. The amount of compost waste which was sent as total waste is not reflected in numbers available from the municipality
One meeting is least 3 persons during at least 15 minutes.
Environmental Policy
All environmental activities at departments and faculties strive against to follow the environmental policy in which all staff and students are requested to comply with the environmental policy, to prevent or reduce environmental impact and to take environmental considerations into all decisions. The head target is that the University of Gothenburg will be one of the leading universities in Europe in education and research within sustainable development and environmental sciences.
Environmental Policy for University of Gothenburg (pdf)
Environmental Handbook
There are routines common for all departments concerning, for example, handling of chemicals and waste in order to decrease the risk of negative environmental impact.
For the environmental work at Tjärnö Marine Laboratory there are also special routines concerning ships, aquaria, sampling and foreign species for example, see below.
Environmental Audits
Every year there are both internal and external environmental audits performed at the university. Tjärnö Laboratory is audited every third year. At the audits the activities at the field stations are reviewed from several different perspectives. Do we comply with environmental legislation? Do we comply with the environmental standard ISO 14001 requirements? Do we comply with our own routines and rules?
Environmental Coordination
Every department or unit has one or two environmental coordinators in the Faculty Environmental Council. The environmental coordinators work with the activities that ultimately aims at reaching the environmental goals. From Tjärnö Laboratory Ullika Lundgren participates in the council.