Natalie Granados joined the Conservation Lab in 2018 and has just made UConn history, leading the first lab at the University to achieve this recognition in sustainability.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope to inspire other departments to be more sustainable,\u201d says Granados, who is also a member of the sustainability committee for the American Institute for Conservation.<\/p>\n To achieve a certification from My Green Lab, everyone who works in the lab is required to take an initial assessment, which, upon completion, provides sustainability recommendations.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter we all took the assessment and received feedback, we had four to six months to implement changes,\u201d says Granados. \u201cMy student employees and I retook the test after having that time to make adjustments, and received Gold status.\u201d<\/p>\n Upon obtaining suggestions from My Green Lab, Granados took gradual action towards transforming the sustainability standards in her lab, starting with towels.<\/p>\n Changes such as replacing paper towels with reusable cloths, using alternatives to reusable supplies and other adjustments with sinks, doors, and lighting in the lab, have earned the lab this recognition.<\/p>\n “With the addition of air purifiers, designated recycling bins for different kinds of materials, and ensuring that any unused lights\/outlets are turned off when not in use, I have felt the emphasis we are putting on making sure we limit any wasteful practices,” says Khadicha Bakhtiyorova, who has worked in the lab since the spring of 2023. “These changes have made me more conscious of any single-use materials that require reusing or reducing to ensure that we keep up with our objectives.”<\/p>\n This recognition fuels the Conservation Lab\u2019s mission in preserving, protecting, and ensuring access to library collections for scholars at home and around the world.<\/p>\n \u201cOur collections, especially archival collections, are just so unique, and because of this space, our materials are so well cared for,\u201d says Jean Cardinale, the head of communications and marketing for UConn Library.<\/p>\n Having a space that monitors and conserves UConn\u2019s notable collections ensures that these papers and items are prepared for exhibitions, research, and loans to other institutions.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery library\u2019s mission is accessibility. If the item can\u2019t fit or the material can’t be handled, it can’t be made accessible,\u201d says Granados, who studied fine arts illustration before specializing in paper conservation. \u201cWhich is where I step in.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to conservation, Granados and her lab focus on environmental monitoring,<\/p>\n \u201cWith environmental monitoring, we’re making sure that the temperature and humidity of collection spaces are reasonable in terms of sustainability, because the temperature and humidity are going to make it so that the object doesn’t fall apart in ten years and remains successful,\u201d says Granados.<\/p>\n Over the course of her time at the Conservation Lab, Granados has implemented several initiatives, in addition to sustainability efforts, that have improved the lab.<\/p>\n “I was hired as a special collections conservator, with little to no involvement with general collections, but it didn’t seem right to me,” says Granados.\u00a0 “So, I started branching out and branching out, and every year, I would add a little bit more and see, what can we do this with X-amount of students? Can we take on this type of damage?”<\/p>\n Now, with four student employees, Granados and her team have an established workflow to handle both the general collections and archives.<\/p>\n “Working in the Conservation Lab has taught me a lot about how much UConn values the preservation and accessibility of different general collection and archival materials,” says Bakhtiyorova, who works on paper repair with Japanese tissue, repairing damaged covers, and creating all-new covers for a wide variety of books. “Without the work that we do in the lab, UConn students, faculty, and the general public would have limited access to the amazing collections in Babbidge and the Dodd Center.”<\/p>\n Though the lab has received this certification, Granados has plans to continue taking steps towards a sustainable lab environment by recertifying with My Green Lab in two years.<\/p>\n “Our lab has served the UConn community for the past 23 years, and our presence continues to show how much the library cares. The fact that we have a conservational lab and are able to preserve materials for future UConn students, faculty and community members is a testament to that care,” says Granados.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Conservation Lab – which oversees the library’s collections – is the first at UConn to earn Gold Certification from My Green Lab<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":219,"featured_media":244863,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1805,2461,2387,2235],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2634],"class_list":["post-243538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate-change","category-staff","category-sustainability","category-today-homepage"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-05 13:42:41","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/219"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243538"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":244867,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243538\/revisions\/244867"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/244863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243538"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=243538"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=243538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2026-04-23_UConnLibraryConservationLab-3-300x200.jpg\")
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