A contribution to sustainability – Towards green calibration laboratory for electrical instruments

Minimizing environmental impact of laboratory activities, and maximizing the effective usage of deployed resources, is the aim of the laboratory sustainability. However, maintaining efficient operations, and in a case of an accredited laboratory fulfilling quality assurance requirements of the international standard ISO/IEC 17025:2017, is an imperative. The paper presents a holistic approach for improving sustainability practices in the Laboratory for Electrical Measurements (LEM), an accredited laboratory for calibration of electrical instruments according to ISO/IEC 17025:2017, at the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, through systematic intervention in the laboratory practices. The analysis of the overall social and environmental footprint of the laboratory activities is quantitatively conducted. Issues from the UN SDGs perspective are identified and specific measures proposed, by deploying risk-based thinking, enabling the metrics of the key sustainability indicators. Some measures are already implemented in the procedures of the LEM, thus contributing to the LEM strategic goal to be recognized as a ‘green lab’.