Why Lichen?

Our founder grew up in the woods of New England, where lichen grows on everything – trees, buildings, and even rocks.

Inspired in college by the humble recycling sign, Will asked, “What if sustainability nudges cropped up everywhere – growing on the walls like lichen?” The concept stuck.

The Lichen Lab is an incubator for laboratory sustainability technologies that can flourish and scale, just like lichen does in the natural world. We’d like to think that Shut the Sash Alarms are only the beginning of our journey towards a more lichen-covered, sustainable world.

OUR MISSION

The Lichen Lab’s mission is to empower laboratory sustainability leaders with tools that amplify their impact.

As a Public Benefit Corporation, our mission is baked into our founding documents.

History of the
Shut the Sash Alarm

Our alarms are based on the MASH Alarm, a technology developed at MIT in their Green Labs Program under the direction of Jennifer Ballew. Alarms that remind lab users to keep hoods closed have a history, and we were certainly not the first to create them. Inspired by these efforts and excited by more recent findings, we aspire to scale the reach and impact of this behavioral change tool.