U. of I. Wins in the Freezer Challenge

The collective energy conservation efforts of researchers on the Urbana campus again earned top honors in the International Laboratory Freezer Challenge’s “Academic Sector” category.

This year, 146 laboratories across 23 different departments combined to save an estimated 1,338 kilowatt-hours (kWh)/day or 488,643 kWh/year in the challenge. The results set new U. of I. competition records for overall participation and energy reduction.

The university joined the challenge in 2017; since then, the Urbana campus has won or been presented a special award for seven straight years by operating its labs with efficient and sustainable cold-storage sample management practices to improve energy efficiency, reduce costs, and protect sample integrity while earning competition points. My Green Lab and the International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories (I2SL) will formally recognize the university’s achievements at the I2SL conference in St. Louis later this month. Over 3,000 laboratories took part in 35 countries, with the energy savings equivalent of 5,296 gas-powered cars driven for one year.

Energy Efficiency and Conservation Specialist Paul Foote said, “We are not only seeing more researchers join our program each year and contribute to our continued success, but what’s equally remarkable is that returning laboratories are continuously improving, learning from others’ best practices, and discovering new ways to reduce their energy usage even further.”

Top Performing Campus Labs

This year’s campus results featured the most labs to date and the largest numbers of cold storage units retired, defrosted, or with cleaned cooling coils. A summary of key laboratory actions are available on the F&S website. 

The top five best-performing labs were led by the following principal researchers:

• Julie Nguyen-Edquilang – College of Veterinary Medicine – Shared Laboratories
• Julia Neumann – The Illinois Natural History Survey – Wildlife Veterinary Epidemiology Laboratory
• Lucienne Burrus – Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI)
• Marissa Nyland – Integrated Bioprocessing Research Laboratory
• Vanessa DeShambo – Illinois Sustainable Technology Center

How to Join the Challenge

Researchers are encouraged to sign up to join the next Freezer Challenge ahead of the competition beginning in January 2025. Contact Paul Foote, 217-244-1048, to enroll. More information about the competition is available at https://go.fs.illinois.edu/FreezerChallenge. Campus involvement in the Freezer Challenge helps achieve energy reduction goals in the Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP).