Green Labs Past Events
Green Labs Past Events
Scroll down to see our past events, including the March WiBBE Social Event (March 16, 2023), Green Labs Certification Challenge (April 2023/24/25/26, November 2023/24/25/26), and Green Labs Lightning Talks (April 28, 2023 and September 20, 2024, April 15, 2026), Styrofoam Bowling (August 20, 2024), Orientation Events (September 2024) and more!
Green Labs Lightning Talks April 15, 2026
Sustainability and Green Labs are hosting a ton of events for Earth Month! One of these events is our annual zero-waste Lightning Talks Event April 15th in Chen 100 from 12:30-3 (talks start at 1pm), where we are inviting labs to give 3-minute talks highlighting sustainable initiatives their labs have or would like to implement. We are providing food, drinks, and sustainable giveaways for attendees and giving RocketBooks (sustainable notebooks) or other great prizes to our presenters. If you would like to attend or present at this event, please use the link here to RSVP!
Check back here to see what other events are happening in April for Earth Month!
Earth Month April 2026
Caltech has so many Earth Month Events planned, including the Lightning Talks on April 15! See our full schedule in the poster attached. Come check out our weekly composting tabling events outside Red Door, our Resource Fair and Clothing Swap Events, movie nights, campus walks, or an orchestral performance! Sign up for our Sustainability Scavenger Hunt and win some great sustainability prizes, too!
See also the Earth Month plans for the City of Pasadena!
Green Labs ReStore Easter Challenge
Come visit the Lab ReStore located at Alles 181 during our limited hours and pick up lab items for FREE.
We're hosting a ReStore Easter Egg Hunt from March 9 - April 6!
2 ways to play:
- Take home one of three secretly pre-selected items to win an easter egg gift basket for your lab
- Decode the weekly egg clues hidden throughout the restore and write the answer on the back of your checkout form to be entered to win a raffle prize!
You can also visit the the online Green Labs Marketplace to see what we have, or use this Form to submit your donations.
Green Labs Certification Crash Course January 2026
Curious about Green Labs Certification but don't know where to start? Come to our Certification Crash Course in January to ask all your questions, get Certified, or just come grab a cookie!
Certified labs get access to exclusive events, free recycling bins, free lab plastics recycling program (including recycling for everything from non-hazardous pipette tips, conical tubes, serological pipettes, and so much more!), and energy efficiency stickers! Get Certified today and get access to all these wonderful programs and more!
Lab ReStore Glass Painting Event December 2025
Green Labs is excited to launch the Green Labs Marketplace and ReStore! Check out our webpage for items that labs wish to divest, or add your own items with a simple Form! Our student-run ReStore is located in Alles 181 and is open limited hours each semester (see here for current hours).Once an item is given away, please email us at [email protected] and let us know. Happy divesting!
Lab ReStore Grand Opening November 2025
Green Labs is excited to launch the Green Labs Marketplace and ReStore! Check out our webpage for items that labs wish to divest, or add your own items with a simple Form! Our student-run ReStore is located in Alles 181 and is open limited hours each semester (see here for current hours).Once an item is given away, please email us at [email protected] and let us know. Happy divesting!
Welcome to our Summer 2025 SURF Students
Aarohi Patel and Bhakti Ahir Ahir are joining us for a summer of adventures investigating lab energy usage and fume hood sensors, respectively! Excited to see how their research can impact Caltech!
2023-2024 Events
Green Labs is calling for presenters for Lightning Talks on September 20th. Green Labs is inviting labs to give 3-minute lightning talks highlighting sustainable initiatives their lab has implemented, or would like to implement, in their labs.
Furthermore, we have some exciting updates to share about the first year of our sustainable pilot programs, including a year-long study comparing samples kept in -70ËšC vs. -80ËšC! We are providing food, drinks, a raffle, and sustainable giveaways for attendees, and providing RocketBooks (sustainable notebooks) to our presenters.
If you would like to attend or present at this event, please use the link here to RSVP!
Green Labs is launching a short-term Styrofoam Recycling Pilot Program!
Come to our fun Styrofoam Lawn Bowling event celebrating the launch of this pilot program, and compete against your fellow labs to get the best score for some awesome prizes! Want to earn even more points? Bring your clean Styrofoam (ie. Styrofoam without any tape or cardboard) to the Beckman Mall lawn for bonus points, and support our newest recycling program!
We will also have some refreshments for labs to enjoy while you "bowl"!
After the event, we are launching a short-term Styrofoam recycling pilot program (scroll down our Pilot Programs page for more details). If you'd like to volunteer to help our recycling pilot program succeed, please fill out this form!
Click here to sign our petition asking vendors to reduce the amount of Styrofoam being sent to campus, and asking Caltech to develop a permanent Styrofoam recycling program.
If you are looking for some clean up how-tos, resources, chore lists (or more!), or to see all of the before and after submissions, as well as above-and-beyond things each lab did, scroll to the bottom of our Spring Clean Event page!
Green Labs hosted a Lab Spring Clean Event From January through April 2024! Participants competed to clean their labs from top to bottom by cleaning our freezers, organizing storage spaces, taking inventory of lab supplies, and much more! Green Labs is providing lots of resources, including magnets, laminated freezer checklists, chore suggestion lists, freezer inventory spreadsheets, and much much more!
Each participating lab provided before and after pictures of their cleanup by midnight April 30 to [email protected]. Prizes will be given for two categories: the biggest before and after difference, and for the "weirdest thing found".
In May 2024, after the competition ended, Green Labs invited all participating labs to have a sustainable lunch on us!
This Fall Green Labs is hosting a competition between all the Lomi Tabletop Composters at Caltech! Currently, there are four Lomi composters on campus: Broad 3rd floor, Chen Basement Level, Chen Level 2, and Chen Level 3. Labs on these floors will compete to turn the most food waste into compost dirt from September - December 2023. Green Labs will provide a sustainable lunch party for the floor that makes the most compost dirt for our lovely Caltech gardens! Second and third prizes will also be provided. May the "Lomi-est" lab win! Good luck composters! If you are interested in getting a Lomi for your kitchen area, please reach out to [email protected] to learn more!
Women in BBE (WiBBE) has invited Green Labs and one of our partners in sustainability, USA Scientific, to host a WiBBE social event March 16th! This is an amazing opportunity to meet other awesome women* in BBE, as well as learn about Green Labs and lab sustainability. USA Scientific is planning an activity to re-pot succulents into old pipette boxes! Anyone who identifies as a woman* is welcome to attend!
* We use an inclusive definition of "woman" and "female" and we welcome trans women, genderqueer women and non-binary people. We believe in supporting the many intersections of our members' identities, such as (but not limited to) race, sexual orientation, gender expression, socioeconomic class, and immigrant/indigenous status.
Green Labs hosted Lightning Talks on Friday, April 28th, to learn about sustainable initiatives in BBE. Download the poster here!
In this zero-waste event, Green Labs partnered with Genesee to provide food, sustainable giveaways, and great conversations surrounding sustainable labs! We invited presenters or attendees to a session of 3-minute talks highlighting lab efficiency and sustainability initiatives labs have implemented (or would like to implement)! Everyone was welcome to attend this event.
* Please note we have extended the deadline for submission of presentation slides to April 24th. Presenters will be gifted a free RocketBook!
Chemistry and Chemical Engineering (CCE) Graduate Student Council invited Green Labs and one of our partners in sustainability, USA Scientific, to host a social event in November in the Schlinger courtyard! This was an amazing opportunity to meet graduate students in CCE and to and share information about Green Labs and lab sustainability. USA Scientific representative Trinity Dorger helped graduate students to re-pot succulents into recycled pipette tip boxes.
Green Labs challenged labs to finish their Green Labs Certification by Earth Day, April 22nd and again by November 30! If your lab was Certified before either of those days, your lab was invited to come have a sweet treat on us to celebrate your sustainability excellence!
To get certified, finish the easy, 30-minute Green Labs Certification and submit it to [email protected].
Upon submission your lab will become Green Labs Certified! Your lab will be awarded a brag-worthy Green Labs Certified plaque to post outside your lab spaces. Labs that complete the Green Labs Certification can also expect to receive support from Green Labs, the division, as well as select vendors. Certified labs also have access to items such as free recycling bins, signage, and exclusive Green Labs events.