From crocodile genes to green labs
For 25 years, senior consultant Marianne Due has directed her professional focus to SDU’s laboratories, and she is still thrilled when common solutions are discovered that further improve the framework for teaching and research in the laboratories.
If someone had told Marianne Due in 1999 that 25 years from now she would be heading the work to make all SDU’s laboratories more sustainable – she would probably not have believed them.
Back then, she was deeply interested in crocodile genes.
And she spent all her working hours in the lab studying crocodile immune systems to better understand the human immune system. But she also realised – despite her passion for biochemistry and molecular biology – that a research career was not for her.
- During those years, I realised that I wasn’t the type of person who dreamed of having my own project and my own research group. On the contrary, I was ready to go through fire and water when I was working on something that directly benefits other people as well as the University.
Controlling the framework
Marianne Due has been doing that ever since:
Going through fire and water to ensure an optimal framework for research and teaching in the laboratories at SDU. She started as a laboratory manager in Professor Susanne Mandrup’s group, and after a few years she became responsible for managing the laboratories at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology – in terms of safety, room allocation and the building stock.
- It was quite challenging to keep track of 8,000 square metres of labs in which with radioactive substances, GMOs and a variety of chemicals were used and which were constantly in a process of construction, reconstruction and moving. I quickly learned that my detailed knowledge and overview of rules and facilities were not enough to achieve good results; good collaboration with the users of the labs as well as with colleagues in Technical Services is essential.
Sustainable laboratories
Since 2020, Marianne Due has been dedicated to helping SDU’s laboratories move in a more sustainable direction in the Green Lab project, and she has worked on the project full-time since 2023.
The project was included in the climate plan in 2022, and since then it has grown much bigger than anyone imagined.
- The project is currently running much faster than we had anticipated. You can really feel that people are interested in addressing sustainability efforts in the labs and they seem delighted that there is a project that they can join, she says.
Marianne Due’s strong commitment is evident when she talks about the Green Lab project. The project allows her to put her extensive knowledge of both SDU’s laboratories and different cultures into play – and contribute to making the University more sustainable.
- I’m really pleased that the Green Lab project is so well received, even though it requires more work in the labs. The more energy we all put into the project, the more sustainable we become at SDU. So it makes me really proud when some of our labs succeed in being certified with impressive ratings, like IMM’s Green Team (sustainability team at the departments, ed.) at the Faculty of Health Sciences recently succeeded in doing – even though they were a brand new sustainability team and had just moved into new buildings on campus in Odense, she says, elaborating:
- It feels very meaningful to be able to share my knowledge with all of SDU and to help make it easier for everyone in the labs to become more sustainable.
Your best experience from your time at SDU?
- There are so many experiences related to all the goodwill we encounter in the Green Lab project, but if I have to single out one experience, it has to be when I succeeded in establishing the Teaching Oasis at the Faculty of Science, which created a much better framework for the students’ lab teaching.
About the Green Lab project
The SDU Green Lab project supports research areas in achieving sustainability certification via My Green Lab. The project is part of SDU’s climbing plan.
My Green Lab is a non-profit organisation whose mission is: “To build a global culture of sustainability in science.”
At the moment, laboratories at NAT, TEK and SUND are in the process of being certified, and the project calendar for 2025 is already fully booked.
The sustainability certification must not interfere with the research, teaching or safety in the laboratories. Participating laboratories have a voice in deciding which efforts they want to work with.
Marianne Due coordinates and facilitates progress and collaboration across faculties and common areas at SDU and with My Green Lab. She also participates in the steering committee for Green Lab network Denmark. The network is for both private and public organisations.
Read more about the Green Lab project