Peer Audit Checklist - 2025 Edition

General














Choose any audit that will be relevant and helpful, given the hazards that your auditee manages. You and your peer audit partner do not have to complete the same audit flavor for each other's spaces: feel free to vary your audit types.

Safety Culture Chat

This is a bit of a different audit flavor!
Find at least 20 minutes to sit down with your audit partner and discuss safety practices and safety culture. Your aim is to learn things, reflect, and hopefully have an interesting conversation with some valuable takeaways.
This can be done with a beverage of your choice or over lunch, or it can be done in the lab. 

In this discussion, consider all aspects of occupational and environmental health and safety holistically: safety is the prevention of harm to people and the environment.
Safety culture can be defined as the product of individual and group values, attitudes, perceptions, competencies, and patterns of behavior that determine the commitment to, and the style and proficiency of, an organization’s health and safety management.
Simply put, safety culture is “the way we do things around here.”
Safety Culture Questions
Not at all Somewhat Mostly Very much so
Ask your auditee the following questions:




How do people approach risk management, incident prevention, and conversations about safety?



Housekeeping & Emergency Procedures


First things first: Please ask your auditee to take a moment to locate the nearest fire extinguisher, spill kit, first aid kit, and exit(s)


Yes No

Measure at waist height. If there are multiple egress paths, record the measurement of the narrowest one.









Briefly discuss emergency procedures, including evacuation, rally point, and what to do in case of a spill, fire, injury, or other severe incident.
Refer to the Emergency Action Plan for more information.
Yes No



Talkin' Trash

Talkin' trash is all about waste. With your partner, discuss all wastes produced from all processes this company performs and where they end up.

What goes in the trash, recycling, or compost?
Does anything go in electronic waste? Are any batteries disposed of with Greentown's battery recycling?

Does anything go down the sink? Is anything disposed of as hazardous waste or regulated non-hazardous waste?

Are there any questions about how best to handle a given material?

When you are done with the required content, you are welcome to "talk trash" more generally, about anything you like. Keep it cool, though.
Yes No


Yes No




Questions about hazardous waste disposal?
Contact: Kay Lowden, klowden@greentownlabs.com

Chaos Corners

A "chaos corner" is that zone in your lab space that needs some attention, organization, or is otherwise accumulating a bit of a mess.
No shame about it. Almost every active space has some zone where people put things they don't know what to do with. This audit is designed to shine a light on this zone and help you increase safety and reduce chaos with simple structure.

Examples of possible chaos corner ingredients: 
Samples or chemicals you know you need to get rid of but you don't know how
Semi functional equipment or things that are not currently useful



does everything have a lid?
is anything clearly leaking or has it leaked out?
is anything pressurized or bulging?
what is the status of the labels
material name
hazard indication
date?
any other useful info?

What goes in the trash, recycling, or compost?
Does anything go in electronic waste? Are any batteries disposed of with Greentown's battery recycling?

Does anything go down the sink? Is anything disposed of as hazardous waste or regulated non-hazardous waste?

Are there any questions about how best to handle a given material?

Yes No


Yes No



Questions about hazardous waste disposal?
Contact: Kay Lowden, klowden@greentownlabs.com

Electrical Safety

This audit is all about electricity and how we use it safely.
Talk with your peer audit partner about what they have plugged in, what their electrical needs are, and what experience they have with electrical safety.
Yes No




Extension Cords
Look closely at the extension cord, following it from end to end.
Is the extension cord:
Yes No







Power Strips
Look closely at the power strip, including its connections to the wall and to other devices.
Yes No







Battery Safety Audit

Yes No

Yes No




Hazard Communication & Chemical Storage

This audit is primarily focused on communicating hazards as it relates to the Hazard Communication Standard (29 CFR 1910.1200), and on the safe storage of hazardous materials. Per this standard, employees have a right to know and to understand the hazards present in their workplaces.

Hazardous material means any material which is classified as a physical hazard or a health hazard, a simple asphyxiate, combustible dust, pyrophoric gas, or hazard not otherwise classified. Any material that can reasonably be expected to cause an adverse physical or health effect due to its properties should be treated as a hazardous material.
Notably, this applies to commercially available goods which may not actively be considered "chemicals", such as items used for cleaning.
Yes No



Yes No



Yes No
Hazard Label Elements Example: Methanol
Yes No

Nine GHS Pictograms: Corrosive, Flammable, Oxidizer, Health Hazard (Acute), Health Hazard (Chronic), Gas Under Pressure, Explosive, Environmental Toxicity, Severe Acute Toxicity


Hazard pictogram stickers are available on the safety wall at 444 Somerville Avenue. If the pictograms on the SDS are not represented on the container, please retrieve stickers from the wall to adequately label the material, or ask a member of the safety team for help.






Bonus: Machinery & Shared Space Impact

Here are a few additional questions for prototyping lab members.
Yes No



Shared Space Impact 
Yes No




Bonus: Wet Lab Equipment/Resources

Yes No






Do you (the auditor) think this space/member would benefit from additional follow up from the Greentown Labs Safety Team?

Contact Information