By Ashley Baker, Scientific Content Manager (Contractor) at the ACS Green Chemistry Institute
Inside the GSK Carbon Neutral Laboratory (CNL) at the University of Nottingham – a thought experiment, monument to sustainability, and substantial capital investment – one piece of equipment to advance scientific innovation and thinking differently stands out.
“We have this amazing portfolio of instruments in our building,” said Pete Licence, Professor of Chemistry and Director of the CNL. “The one that’s created the most fun is a 1912 Steinway baby grand. We have it in a circulation space. People play it, music happens, people talk, and they have fun. It’s all about fun.”
Known for his passion for chemistry education and his part in the “Periodic Videos” series, Pete believes strongly in bold, brave moves for advancing sustainability. Almost always, such maneuvering means cross-disciplinary collaboration. The collaboration between GSK and the University of Nottingham to deliver the CNL exemplifies what can happen when challenges are approached with curiosity and openness.
The idea for the lab came from GSK whose leadership wanted to learn about laboratory management and how they could build labs with smaller environmental footprints. The CNL, now in its seventh operating year, is a completely unique laboratory and workspace. Built from renewable and recycled materials like wood and terra cotta, the center’s energy is produced from solar and biomass. By avoiding fossil fuels and offsetting carbon investment in the construction by producing excess energy that is used by surrounding buildings, the CNL will become carbon neutral, paying back its “carbon mortgage,” about 25 years after its construction.
Like any good partnership, the project has been mutually beneficial to the university and GSK.
“GSK doesn’t dictate our science, and we can work with whoever we want to. We have, however, run an experiment that they wanted to do. They wanted to know if they could make carbon-neutral laboratories, and we demonstrated that you can,” explained Pete. “We are showing that we can deliver this building that does world-competitive science with papers published in journals like Science, Nature, Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS), and ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering. We’re not limited in the types of chemistry we can do, but we use a fraction of the energy – and what we use is all renewables-based – and we use a fraction of the water. We’ve also worked on some tough science with GSK through a UK government-funded Prosperity Partnership and shown them significant advances and new approaches to catalysis, electrochemistry, photo redox, flow chemistry, and analytical techniques.”
But the construction of the building, while remarkable, is only part of the equation. The laboratory is a centerpiece for a larger and more diverse collaboration space. Because it is embedded in the university’s “Innovation Park,” which includes the Haydn Green Innovation Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, chemistry students working in the CNL get frequent, intentional exposure to other disciplines and ideas. Pete calls it a “playground,” where creative and transformative science can take root.
“The one thing I would say that is absolutely critical is that problem solving is done across disciplines. Blending the skills of a chemist with those of engineers, life scientists, biologists, and physicists is incredibly powerful, and the earlier they can talk to each other, the better,” said Pete. “Our colleagues in business lead courses with us, so our students are taught about innovation, innovative methodologies, entrepreneurship, and IP protection right from day one.”
Following this logic, the University of Nottingham has re-invented how students are prepared, enabling them to bring rapid innovation to their future workplace. “We need immediate change, so we’ve focused on delivering graduates who understand the challenges of industry and sustainability, and they are outstanding in molecular sciences. Over 50% of graduates from our Ph.D. program go into industry or policy, and they are making an impact in innovation and manufacturing. That is critical to achieving the UN SDGs and net zero goals.”
Sustainability is embedded in the university’s chemistry programs, beginning at the undergraduate level and continuing through their EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Sustainable Chemistry. The center has evolved from “green chemistry” through “sustainable chemistry” to “resilient chemistry,” and it represents a partnership among universities, NGOs, and a portfolio of more than 20 companies ranging from small manufacturers to multinational corporations like Lubrizol and Unilever.
“Resilience is about being agile, and it shows the maturation and application of the field,” said Pete. “Green chemistry is about concepts, sustainable chemistry is about concepts that make a difference, and resilient chemistry is about applying and embedding those concepts in communities. That evolutionary story is very engaging and very energizing.”
To maximize the potential of this energized research ecosystem, projects within the center are always collaborative in discipline, always involve an industrialist, and always have to address an industrially-relevant problem. Students are trained on project management, multi-partner negotiations, and communications. Their cutting-edge skills are highly sought-after.
“The average time to first employment from graduation is less than six weeks,” said Pete. “Often they have jobs before they graduate.” In addition to multi-disciplinary curricula and projects, researchers are encouraged to think in new ways at the CNL through shared workspaces. They move around, constantly getting exposed to different coworkers and stimuli. Working in such a dynamic space inspires creativity in the design, execution, and evaluation of experiments.
“It takes away the security of knowing ‘this is my favorite round-bottom flask’ and ‘this is my favorite stirrer bead,’” said Pete. “That discomfort empowers people to think differently about problems and come to unique solutions. This is critical because we cannot just continue the way we have been.”
Recognizing that the capital investment for a thought experiment like the CNL is significant, Dr. Licence’s advice to others who want to make real change is to identify the right leadership and long-lasting support.
“If you’re going to turn the dial, you can’t make incremental changes. The people who are leading the experiment have to love it, live it, and be able to take people with them,” he said. “There has to be enthusiasm and commitment to going through the painful steps of learning how to do things differently such that you can benefit from the change. So a strong commitment, strong leadership, and a very, very bold champion is what’s required.”
Looking ahead, Pete remains positive about the future, seeing the huge potential for scientific innovation amidst looming sustainability challenges.
“It would be easy to get bogged down by doom and gloom and climate change or whatever the headline of the day is. But as chemists, molecular engineers, and molecular designers, we are the ones that have the skills to create or change the way we create new molecules and materials.”
Pete also emphasized that one of the most important things for collaborations that bring novel solutions and advance science is not itself rigorously scientific: listening. Co-creation driven by listening to the problems first goes beyond reaching across scientific disciplines, extending to social sciences and even the music played on that baby grand.
“Our building works exceptionally well because the architects listened to what we needed. We described how we wanted it to work and why we wanted it to work that way, and they delivered their interpretation of what we wanted,” Pete said. “Now we have a building that functions, and it delivers an outstanding quality of graduates and an outstanding level of science. That’s something that I’ll always be proud of.”
Photo credit: Martine Hamilton Knight