Creating Green Chemical Inventory Practices

Researchers: Chenxi Feng (MET), Arielle Lewis (Sargent), Adrian Rodriguez (CAS), Ron Morales (EHS)

This project is funded by BU Institution for Global Sustainability’s Campus Climate lab, and works in collaboration with the Environmental, Health & Safety (EHS) department. It focuses on the improvement of chemical inventory management practice across BU’s research laboratories to enhance efficiency and sustainability in alignment with the BU Climate Action Plan. The primary objectives include reducing chemical wastes, optimizing procurement strategies, and implementing sustainable chemical substitutions to minimize environmental impacts. By addressing inefficiencies in ordering, storage, and disposal procedures, the project seeks to decrease high-volume and special waste production, lower energy consumption for chemical storage, and improve regulatory compliance. 

The project team will employ a multi-faceted methodology, starting with site visits to high-volume chemical research labs to assess current inventory practices. Data from SciShield, BU’s chemical management software, will be analyzed to identify purchasing trends, waste generation patterns, and potential aggregation opportunities. Process flow diagrams will be created to visualize inefficiencies in procurement and disposal, and analytical inventory models will be applied to optimize reorder levels and batch sizes. The team will explore the feasibility of barcode tracking for enhanced inventory accuracy and will develop standard operating procedures to streamline chemical ordering, storage, and disposal processes.