Lab Sustainability: A Chance for Change

The global population, which exceeded eight billion people in 2022, continues to increase – and to age. Every one of those eight billion people requires resources to survive, including greater access to healthcare. At the moment, although population growth is much higher in developing countries, resource consumption and pollution are greater in developed countries – and the gap between the two has increased exponentially. The focus of sustainability is to reduce this inequality and provide a basic standard of living for Earth’s inhabitants. Protecting resources, limiting energy consumption, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions to protect our climate are paramount among efforts to improve sustainability.

Sustainability means different things to different people. Some may focus on preserving humanity (and, by extension, the planet on which we live); others view the protection of nature as its primary goal. Still others take a hands-off approach, trusting that changing market forces will be sufficient to avert an environmental crisis. Regardless of your personal approach, it’s clear that there’s a need for the healthcare industry to reduce the environmental impact of clinical laboratories – making pathology and laboratory medicine more sustainable.

Moving toward sustainability
 

Healthcare delivery has a significant environmental impact. Hospitals operate around the clock and have large environmental footprints. Ways medical care affects the environment include:

• generating large quantities of solid and liquid waste, often considered potentially infectious by law
• using material that may be hazardous, including polyvinyl chloride, diethylhexyl-phthalate, cleaning solutions, batteries, metals in electronics, and mercury in medical devices and equipment
• consuming large amounts of energy, thereby generating significant greenhouse gas emissions
• consuming large amounts of water and subsequently generating wastewater

Worldwide studies have shown that the typical diagnostic laboratory uses more energy and water per unit area than the typical office building, even though they are not explicitly mentioned as a high-energy consumer within the hospital in most evaluations (1)(2). Given these realities, laboratories must be sensitive to the importance of adopting good environmental practices. Many such practices require a change in the culture and mindset of the lab, the hospital, or sometimes even the wider healthcare industry. Continuing education and training are important in successfully implementing good practices and, because both the changes and the necessary learning cost money, management support is vital.

Regulatory requirements and guidelines at the global and local level aim to minimize diagnostic labs’ ecological footprints. The goal of such guidelines is to continuously enhance the environmental performance of laboratory equipment and products and enable labs to meet sustainability requirements. Guidelines drive a strong culture and commitment to ensuring the safety of people and the environment, driving environmental strategy within the diagnostics industry. As a result, everyone – from manufacturers to end users – must work together to maintain high standards for legal compliance and ensure continuous improvement.

Optimizing your ecological footprint
 

Regulations and guidelines continue to increase in number and complexity – and some even have conflicting requirements. Major challenges include identifying what labs can do to establish a greener approach, how the healthcare industry can support labs in doing so, and how to holistically measure impacts and improvements.

There is still only a rudimentary understanding of how sustainability guidelines can apply to diagnostics laboratories and equipment. Consumer-focused regulations for sustainability are not directly applicable to lab equipment because product development processes for this type of specialized equipment require many years to ensure product integrity and reproduceable, accurate results. Modifying existing products to meet sustainability requirements is rarely an option, leaving new product development as the only alternative – a long-term approach to an immediate problem.

New sustainability requirements and goals for reducing our environmental footprint are opportunities for behavioral change – and sometimes also opportunities to reduce costs by reducing resource consumption. Additionally, businesses that adopt sustainability requirements and can demonstrate measured reductions in their environmental footprints may also gain attention in the healthcare industry, where many healthcare providers are actively scoring competitive tenders against environmental performance criteria.

Eco-design improvements made as part of new product development can contribute to a greener and more sustainable clinical lab economy by incorporating environmentally conscious technologies and concepts while improving the clinical value of diagnostic products.

Steps for actively managing a product’s ecological footprint throughout the complete product lifecycle include:

1. Identifying significant environmental considerations for the product.
2. Selecting and implementing design criteria to meet improvement targets.
3. Reducing or eliminating hazardous substances and minimizing water and energy consumption.
4. Performing ecological lifecycle assessments across all lifecycle phases from design, development, manufacture, and use to end-of-life treatment.
5. Complying with sustainability standards and regulations.

Clinical laboratories – and the wider healthcare industry – can make a significant contribution to combating climate change and achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Doing so will require a mid- to long-term focus on sustainability, including financial investment. Effective training and the engagement and support of senior management (5) are both necessary for all stakeholders to embrace the opportunities a sustainable future presents.