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Sign up for LEAF

Everything you need to know about signing up for LEAF and becoming accredited.

The scheme is for everyone! Academic staff, technical staff and students can organise their teams and dictate what area the certification covers if all practices are the same in this area.

The LEAF process

  1. To sign your lab up to LEAF contact the University Laboratory Sustainability Officer Jenna Lowe (jenna.lowe@liverpool.ac.uk). Jenna will guide you through the sign-up process and provide access to the user guide.
  2. Once your lab is signed up you will be able to access the criteria, select the award level you wish to achieve (bronze, Silver or Gold) and complete the questions. Note if applying for silver the bronze criteria must also be completed and for gold the bronze silver and gold criteria must also be answered.
  3. Once complete press “Submit Sustainability Assessment”.
  4. Once a submission has been received by the LEAF administrators at the University of Liverpool, they will be in touch to arrange an audit of your lab at a convenient time. These audits generally take between 30-60 minutes depending on the size of the laboratory.
  5. Once the audit is complete the submission is approved and the lab will become certified. LEAF produces a certificate for laboratories to access and print to acknowledge their efforts
  6. Awards must be resubmitted annually so at the end of the year labs can repeat the process to increase their award level or reapply to stay at the same level.

How much time does it take for a lab to implement LEAF?

This varies on the size of the lab and how it is set up. LEAF has been designed to minimise administration, whilst maximising action. Surveyed labs have indicated that they may spend 1-10 hours in the first year, though this can vary.

How long does a LEAF submission last?

LEAF submissions are run annually. Awards must be resubmitted annually so at the end of the year labs can repeat the process to increase their award level or reapply for the same level. The LEAF platform will save answers from the previous submission, allowing laboratories to build on their efforts each year. The LEAF questions may be updated or built on each year so its is vital you read over the questions and make any necessary changes.

You cannot sign up more than one lab

Currently, a LEAF user can only be a member of one lab. If you cover more than one area and these work in the same way it is possible to group labs into one submission.

The LEAF Portal

The LEAF login portal can be accessed using this link: https://app.ucl.ac.uk/leaf/leaf_external