Can you reduce the environmental impact of your lab while still performing essential science? This paid-for advertorial by Labcon appeared in the DDW / SLAS supplement in DDW Volume 23, Issue 1 – Winter 2021/22.
Plastic consumables are critical to laboratory benchwork, but these products often have a high environmental impact. While some manufacturers of laboratory consumables have improved the sustainability of their products, it can be challenging to evaluate and compare which products are the most eco-friendly. Now there’s a new laboratory product evaluation solution: the ACT® label.
The ACT label is the premier eco-nutrition label for laboratory products. Created by the independent non-profit organisation My Green Lab, the ACT label is designed to help laboratories make smart, sustainable product choices based on environmental impact scores. By emphasising Accountability, Consistency, and Transparency (ACT) around manufacturing, energy and water use, packaging, and end-of-life, ACT-labeled products offer laboratories the opportunity to reduce their environmental impact by making smarter purchases, with clear, third-party verified information.
Of the many ACT-registered manufacturers, Labcon, the world’s leading manufacturer of Earth Friendly® laboratory consumables, offers the largest collection of sustainable laboratory products in the entire ACT database of consumables manufacturers. With over 600 ACT-certified laboratory products offered in the US, EU, and UK, Labcon also received industry-leading ACT scores and currently holds the lowest Environmental Impact Factor (EIF) score of all the ACT-evaluated consumables worldwide.
Labcon products are manufactured with 93% clean energy and 63% of their energy profile comes from renewable sources, including 30% solar energy generated from their own 2,725-panel rooftop solar array. Labcon products are designed and manufactured to improve the sustainability of scientific research by incorporating sustainable materials such as recyclable or recycled plastics and cardboard, carbon-sequestering bioplastics, refillable and reusable packaging, and metal-free vegetable-based inks.
Since 2000, Labcon has reduced its energy use by 58%, greenhouse gas emissions per case of product by 89%, water use by 81%, and waste by 86%.
When it comes to building a sustainable future for scientific research, choosing the most sustainable consumables has become one of the greatest challenges for laboratories to overcome. The best way to evaluate and track the carbon footprint of laboratory consumables is to utilise the ACT database to compare products before you purchase or evaluate the impact of a product your lab is already using. My Green Lab’s ACT label program provides the accountability, consistency, and transparency needed to create a foundation for a sustainable future, one lab at a time.
Visit www.actdatabase.mygreenlab.org to access the global ACT database.
