1. Neuroimmunology-Munich
  2. Sustainability

Sustainability

grINIM is a volunteer-organized initiative that aims to make research at the Institute of Neuroimmunology (INIM) more sustainable.

As a sub-organization of the BMC Green, we implement relevant local changes that are applicable to the laboratories in our institute. Specifically, we focus on raising awareness and reducing consumption of energy, water, plastic materials as well as toxic reagents. To raise awareness, we introduce a sustainable action of the month (SAM) every month as a means to provide information and offer locally applicable solutions to reduce our consumption. For instance, closing the sashes of biological safety cabinets can reduce energy consumption significantly and prolong the lifetime of the ventilator (further details and other past SAMs are described in the following section). Precisely because research requires tremendous amounts of energy, water and other resources, it is our mission to find alternative solutions to reduce our environmental impact.

Please do not hesitate to contact us via email (grinim.bmc@gmail.com) if you would like to join our team. We are also grateful for your feedback and suggestions in person.

grINIm Team 2025

Current Team

Samantha Ho - PhD Student

"Research for people and our environment"

We started grINIM to bring awareness to simple actions in the lab that can make sizeable impacts when scaled-up across research institutes. Outside of the lab, I bike as much as I can to reduce emissions and reassure my future senior self that I have regularly exercised.

Victoria Böck - Lab Technican

Selia Baier - PhD Student

"Lab Smarter, Live Greener!"

I became part of grINIM to discover ways to make lab work (and home) more sustainable and to contribute to a greener work environment. When I'm cold at home, I swap a heating pad for my cat - she's the perfect eco-friendly heater.

Jan Bartosch - PhD Student

"Green is the new Black!"

Since my early study times, I became aware of the immense environmental impact of our Life Science sector and was happy to join grINIM to tackle these issues. It is amazing, how much we could already achieve at our institute to decrease our consumption of energy, water and plastic materials. To continue this efforts at home, I try to take as many showers together with my girlfriend and turn it into a singing contest - the winner picks our next eco-documentary.

Daniela Beckmann - Postdoc

Janine Kövilein - Postdoc

Sarah McGrath - Postdoc

Emily Russell - Master Student

"Don't accept it, change it!"

When I started my Master's thesis at the institute, I joined grINIM because I believe it's crucial to continiously raise awareness about waste in Science, rather than normalizing or becoming accustomed to it. At home I collect rainwater in buckets on my balcony to water the plants and I repurpose yogurt cups as plant pots.

Alumni

Stephan Winklmeier

XiaoQian Ye

Our Institute received the My Green Lab Certification in Platinum Level!

MGLC

The My Green Lab Certification program provides scientists with actionable ways to make their daily work in the laboratories more sustainable, to reduce costs and to preserve resources. It awards laboratories and research institutions that are driven to reduce their environmental impact for their efforts and helps them to keep their actions going as well as to implement more meaningful measures.

Recognized by the United Nations Race to Zero campaign as a key measure of progress towards a zero-carbon future, My Green Lab Certification is considered the gold standard for laboratory sustainability best practices around the world.

So far, more than 3.400 laboratories worlwide participated in the program. Within the LMU we are among the first institutes who received this certification.

grINIM Logo