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Spotlight: Life Science Organizations That Are Nailing Sustainability

Shannon Meirzon Pyxis Communications

“Sustainability” has become a popular buzzword in recent years. Words like “eco-friendly” and “sustainable solution” have been thrown around with increasing frequency, but behind the glorified terms often hide vague or empty promises.

Fortunately, there are some in life science proving that they are serious about sustainability. These organizations have impressive and unique programs in place to make measurable differences in the way they reduce their impact on the environment.

In this blog, Labconscious is spotlighting some of those that are nailing sustainability. We’re proud to celebrate these trailblazers and their relentless pursuit of a greener future — one with significantly less impact on our environment.

A Decade of Green Labs at the University of California San Diego

With such prestigious research programs, it’s not a surprise that the University of California San Diego (UCSD) has impressive initiatives related to environmental health. In 2013, UCSD created its Green Labs program, which offers certifications to labs that meet certain criteria. The certification focuses on minimizing the use of energy, water, and materials while improving efficiency. More than 106 labs have been certified so far.

In addition to inventing a system that has helped other labs become more environmentally friendly, UCSD’s labs have specific strategies that serve as a model for other institutions. UCSD labs host ChemCycle, a recycling program for laboratory chemicals. Rather than disposing of chemicals or other laboratory materials, ChemCycle will collect (yes, they pick up and deliver!) unused chemicals and resell them to other labs. This keeps unnecessary hazardous materials out of the water while also preventing the carbon footprint that comes with manufacturing extra products.

Labs at UCSD also make efforts to use products that are ACT® certified. ACT is a third-party certification from My Green Lab® that assesses the environmental impact of laboratory products such as chemicals, reagents, and equipment.

The Brookhaven National Laboratory excels in saving energy

As the U.S. Department of Energy’s premier multidisciplinary lab, Brookhaven® National Laboratory has been a leading force in the advancement of science since its arrival in 1947. While it may be best known for its seven Nobel Prize-winning discoveries, it's also making bold moves when it comes to sustainability, with one of the top environmentally conscious sets of initiatives in the country. Here are Brookhaven’s cutting-edge programs for sustainability:

 

  • Reducing greenhouse gas initiatives

A three-phase approach is already underway for Brookhaven to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. Phase one includes cutting greenhouse gas emissions from burners, vehicles, and boilers. Phase two plans to reduce gas emissions from purchased electricity generation. Emissions from business travel, waste treatment, and product deliveries make up phase three. By 2025, Brookhaven hopes to reduce emissions from phases one and two by 50%. That’s a 102,814 MtCO2e reduction! By 2025, Brookhaven also hopes to reduce phase three emissions by 25%. To achieve this, setback capabilities are being installed for heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning systems; and a steam cost charge-back program is being established to charge building occupants for power usage.

  • Waste minimization

Brookhaven’s Pollution Prevention program is focused on waste minimization. As of 2019, its efforts resulted in about three million pounds of material being reduced, reused, or recycled. Other achievements in 2019 included recycling 1,565 gallons of cutting fluid, recycling 60 tons of office paper, and converting demolition debris into recycled concrete aggregate in the lab’s parking lot. These efforts also saved the company about three million dollars, proving that being eco-friendly and driving a profit are compatible goals.

  • Buying green

Buying products that are environmentally friendly was at the top of Brookhaven’s list of best practices. Brookhaven found many ways to buy products that are less harmful to the environment than traditional options through its Environmentally Preferable Purchasing program. This program included opting for recycled post-consumer paper, remanufactured toner cartridges, and using Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT)-registered computers. 

LabCorp R&D facility efficiently processes PolyStyrene into recyclable resin on-site

Labcorp is rising to the challenge of sustainability. As a global life science and clinical laboratory service company, it is conscious of its environmental footprint and has a variety of programs to help reduce waste, improve water quality, and lower emissions. Notably, Labcorp committed to participate in Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) as a defined pathway to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at scale.

One unique project has had massive success at Labcorp’s Harrogate R&D site in the U.K. which specializes in pharmaceutical development, crop production, and chemical development. Thirty members of the facility’s Go Green Team wanted to change the way they were recycling polystyrene, a petroleum-based material that is commonly found in Petri dishes, test tubes, containers, single-use disposable plastics, insulating foams, and culture trays. Previously, Labcorp had been taking polystyrene to a recycling facility nearly twenty miles away, making two trips per week. The inefficient process prompted the team to buy its own polystyrene recycling equipment. With the new machinery, the site can compress polystyrene into small bricks. Now, the bricks are collected every four to six months, rather than twice a week. This has reduced the CO2 emissions from transportation. As a bonus, the new process is more cost-effective for the site. The compression equipment has already paid for itself.

GlaxoSmithKline is Zeroing in on supply Chain

The global biopharma GlaxoSmithKline (GSK P.L.C.) doesn’t just want to minimize its negative effects on the environment—the company wants to have a net positive impact by 2030.

As part of this goal, every single GSK facility will achieve the status of good water stewardship by 2025. Additionally, the company wants to reduce its overall water use by 20%. Each company site, as well as major suppliers, will also be required to have zero impact active pharmaceutical ingredients in their water.

Within the next seven years, GSK wants to have 100% of agricultural, forestry, and marine-derived materials sustainably sourced and deforestation-free. Another impressive goal the company has is to eliminate its consumption of single-use plastics in its laboratories and manufacturing areas, with the caveat to exclude those plastics which are critical to product discovery and development, health and safety, and where regulatory obligations allow. By 2025, GSK is aiming to have all electricity come from renewable sources.

We hope that featuring some shining examples of sustainability leaders will inspire you to make changes in your own labs.

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