The 2023 Freezer Challenge results are in!
In the largest competition ever, nearly 2,000 laboratories around the world participated in the 2023 International Freezer Challenge — a free competition run by My Green Lab and I2SL that promotes energy efficiency through best practices in lab cold storage management. This year's challenge has saved a whopping 20.7 million kWh of energy, corresponding to about 14,663 metric tons of CO2-equivalent — more than double the amount of CO2 saved in last year’s challenge! This year, participating labs contributed to saving energy equivalent to 60.4 million km driven by an average gas-powered vehicle.
This year, UBC lab groups participated in a network of labs from 170 different institutions across 27 countries, a new record, and completed various actions that promote efficient use of cold storage units such as cleaning out old freezers, scheduling preventative maintenance for units, chilling up ULT setpoints and cleaning condenser coils. These small actions can lead to big payoffs. The combined efforts of UBC labs saved an estimated 142 kWh/day, the equivalent energy use of 241 chest freezers!
Congratulations to our winning groups from each campus: the Foster Lab in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology on the Point Grey campus and UBC Okanagan's Hazardous Waste Program. A huge thank you to all participating groups at UBC for implementing cold storage best practices through the Freezer Challenge!
Learn more about the Freezer Challenge and how to get involved below.