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Lab Innovations: the sustainability angle

October 24, 2026

Feature

Earth & Environmental, Life Sciences, Materials, Physics & Engineering

Certification, Lab Innovations 2026, Sustainability

As we arrive at Lab Innovations, we head towards the end of a year where climate change in the UK and globally has never felt more impactful. The scientific community is key to driving forward the positive change we need to tackle climate change, and great strides are being made, says Raj Patey.

The UK Science sector is a key global player, whether we think about academia, pharma or healthcare. Therefore, in a Teams and Zoom age, bringing together those from the laboratory and those from laboratory suppliers, alongside purchasers, funders and others continues to be key to progress.

In my experience, this in-person approach continues to enable a focused dialogue that only happens at events such as Lab Innovations. Each year the sustainability conversation and content mirrors what we see globally; A transition from passionate individual approaches to policy, legislation and organisation lead enablement of more sustainable science. We do have a lot more to do, but this evolution is clear to see, and exciting to be a part of.

My area of focus at My Green Lab is product sustainability and with it a more sustainable laboratory supply chain. One of the key questions being asked is: What does it mean for a laboratory product to be 'green'?

Until recently, there have been no defined rules, meaning the answer depended entirely on who was making the claim. Companies had significant flexibility in how they defined and communicated the environmental attributes of their products, from developing their own ecolabels and green marks to determining which claims to focus on in their marketing. Purchasers, in turn, were left to navigate different definitions of sustainability and discern which claims were meaningful.

That has changed. Sustainability claims now need to be specific, comparable, and backed by evidence. Independent verification of all claims by an unbiased third party gives customers credible information they can use to choose products with lower environmental impact.

What we’re now seeing is a shift from "tell me your product is sustainable" to "show me how your product is sustainable”.

This shift is being driven by strict regulations and expectations from the industry. As a result, the ability to substantiate product environmental performance has become increasingly important, both for companies demonstrating the impact of their products and for purchasers seeking credible information to support their decisions.

For anyone offering products in Europe, the Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive, or EmpCo, has introduced strict requirements for how environmental claims and ecolabels are used in the region. Sustainability claims must now be specific and backed by evidence.

In the UK, the DMCC Act 2024 Gives the CMA direct enforcement powers to penalise unfair commercial practices and greenwashing without needing to go through the courts first.

This isn’t just about compliance. Customers expect more information about what they buy. With biopharma and biotech companies working toward their internal and public sustainability goals, they need suppliers who can provide credible, usable information about the products they’re purchasing.

For manufacturers, this creates an opportunity to demonstrate the progress they are already making. Companies across the industry are reducing packaging, improving product materials, minimising hazardous chemicals, using renewable energy, extending product lifetimes, and adding circularity support at product end of life. But highlighting those efforts in a way that customers can confidently understand and use is crucial.

What we’re now seeing is a shift from "tell me your product is sustainable" to "show me how your product is sustainable”

The end point is that we move from self-certification to third-party verification. Third-party verification of claims and a consistent sustainability framework allow environmental efforts by purchasers to be based on credible information. And unlike self-certification, evaluation to a consensus standard offers an unbiased assessment against established criteria.

And when it comes to the all-important laboratory supply chain, we now see standardisation around the ACT Ecolabel when it comes to product selection and data in a way that is compatible and aligned with the latest legislation, whilst sitting alongside corporate level standards such as Ecovadis. This standardisation includes:

Rapid grown of ACT 2.0 with 6,000+ products from 90+ manufacturers live on the ACT database or under audit.
17 ACT Channel partners including Fisher, VWR, Appleton Woods & My Amici. Channel Partners are distributors and purchasing platforms who are giving procurement teams and scientists a growing set of trusted places to find ACT® Ecolabel-certified products.

Alongside this our My Green Lab Certification program continues to standardise more sustainable lab practice with global approaches from pharma, campus wide roll outs by academia and accelerated take up in clinical labs.

Raj Patey is business development director at My Green Lab

An abridged version of Ray Patey's article appears in the Laboratory News Lab Innovations Show Special publication, available with this issue and at the event on 4-5 November at the NEC Birmingham. My Green Lab are sponsoring the Future of Laboratories Stage and will run panel sessions on both days of Lab Innovations:

Wednesday: Working Together for a Greener Laboratory Supply Chain.
Thursday: Deploying the My Green Lab Certification across Academia, SMEs and BioPharma.