Did you know your labs consume 10x more energy and 4x more water than typical office spaces? However, when laboratories implement sustainable lab practices, not only do they reduce costs and decrease their impact, but they also meet sustainability criteria from funders and stakeholders.
Measuring and minimizing carbon impact creates a meaningful change where the laboratory becomes part of the pharmaceutical industry’s climate solutions. In this report, we quantify the industry’s carbon impact, highlight the role of green lab practices in minimizing it, and showcase relevant initiatives that can help your laboratory make a shift towards sustainability.
The biotech and pharma industries are major contributors to global climate change. In 2019, a study from Healthcare Without Harm and ARUP found that healthcare’s climate footprint was two gigatons of carbon dioxide, which is 4% of total global emissions. 71% of those emissions were derived from the healthcare supply chain, including the biotech and pharma industries.
In the 2024 carbon impact of biotech and pharma report My Green Lab® found that:
Public companies in the biotech and pharma sector reached 259 million tCO₂e of carbon emissions, and private companies reached 138 million tCO₂e. Together, they total 397 million tCO₂e.
A significant portion of these total carbon emissions comes from scope 3 emissions or indirect emissions from a company’s resource chains.
Public companies generate 5.3 times greater Scope 3 emissions than Scope 1 and 2 combined. For private companies, this ratio is even higher at 6.5 times Scope 3 emissions.
Purchased goods and services account for 79% of Scope 3 emissions for the biotech and pharma sector.
These insights highlight the critical role of procurement and supplier engagement in lowering emissions. While labs are resource intensive spaces themselves, this report highlights that labs need to consider the full supply chain and the impact of their purchasing decision for lab products and contract research services.
Green lab practices go beyond the environmental benefits — they drive both short- and long-term operational success for laboratories. My Green Lab Certification provides practical, science-based strategies for laboratory users to integrate sustainability best practices in their work. These practices can significantly reduce waste and lower energy, water, and materials usage. By achieving My Green Lab Certification, laboratories can meaningfully reduce their carbon footprint in their lab and supply chain.
In a one-year pilot of My Green Lab Certification 2.0 across 12 labs, preliminary results showed the following:
Commercial Labs
- 5x Average ROI
- $22k average savings per lab
- 26 metric tonnes CO2e avoided per lab
Academic Labs
- 17x Average ROI
- $9k average savings per lab
- 17.4 metric tonnes CO2e avoided per lab
Recognizing the urgency of addressing Scope 3 emissions, My Green Lab offers globally recognized programs that empower laboratories and their suppliers to take measurable action both in the lab and the lab supply chain.
- What It Is: The world’s most trusted certification for sustainable laboratories, providing a proven process and software tool to benchmark your lab, guide your sustainability journey and reduce your impact while estimating your carbon and financial savings.
- Who It’s For: Any laboratory, including pharmaceutical and biotechnological laboratories, committed to reducing their environmental impact and making measurable, lasting improvements in sustainability.
- How It Works: Get certified by getting your lab assessed across 14 core sustainability topics—from energy and waste to water and engagement. Establish a baseline assessment score, then apply actionable strategies suggested by My Green Lab’s technical experts to retake the assessment and achieve a certification level based on progress.
- Global Alignment: Recommended by the US EPA and recognized by the United Nations-backed Race to Zero campaign as a critical benchmark for laboratories striving toward a zero-carbon future.
- What It Is: The only third-party verified ecolabel for laboratory products -ensuring Accountability, Consistency, and Transparency in reporting the environmental impact of laboratory products. It is a valuable tool for comparing and selecting sustainable lab products during procurement in order to reduce the impact of your supply chain purchases.
- Who It’s For: Scientists and procurement specialists who need clear, third-party verified information to make smarter lab product purchases.
- How It Works: The ACT® Ecolabel breaks down the environmental impact of lab products across manufacturing, packaging, energy and water use, and end-of-life. These scores are published in the searchable ACT Database, helping scientists and procurement teams easily compare and choose more sustainable options.
- Verified By: ACT-labeled laboratory products are independently audited by Verico to ensure accuracy and consistency.
- What It Is: Converge is a collaborative supply chain initiative that mobilizes large pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to drive sustainability across their supplier networks. It focuses on reducing Scope 3 emissions by encouraging outsourced research suppliers to implement science-based lab sustainability practices.
- Who It’s For:
- Sponsors: Large pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies that are already walking the talk with a Major Commitment to My Green Lab® Certification.
- Suppliers: Contract Research Organizations (CROs), Contract Manufacturing Organizations (CMOs), Contract Development and Manufacturing Organizations (CDMOs), and other suppliers with significant laboratory operations.
- How It Works: Sponsors invite and support their suppliers, especially those with large research footprints, to achieve My Green Lab® Certification, helping them measure and reduce the environmental impact of lab operations.
- Global Alignment: Converge supports the United Nations 2030 Breakthrough Outcome for the Race to Zero campaign: certifying 95% of all labs at the highest level of sustainability across the value chain.
- What It Is: A global, annual competition that runs from January to June, empowering laboratories to reduce energy consumption and improve cold storage practices. In 2024, participants saved over 22,500 metric tons of CO₂e.
- Who It’s For: Any laboratory with ultra-low temperature freezers, refrigerators, or other cold storage units—across academia, pharma, biotech, and government institutions.
- How It Works: Participants earn points by implementing best practices in cold storage management, including temperature tuning, sample consolidation, preventative maintenance, and equipment upgrades. Labs track actions through an online scoresheet and compete for recognition based on impact and engagement..
- Organized By: My Green Lab® and the International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories (I2SL)
As the biotech and pharma sector increases its commitment to sustainability, many major companies have set ambitious goals for My Green Lab Certification across their laboratories:
36 companies, representing 56% of the pharma and medtech sector’s revenue, have joined the UN Race to Zero campaign, signaling rapid adoption.
The Race to Zero campaign’s Breakthrough Outcome for the pharma and medtech sector is to have 95% of labs My Green Lab certified at the highest level by 2030.
As of the latest report, 61% of companies in the pharma and med tech sector of the Race to Zero campaign have started My Green Lab Certification programs, the majority with the enterprise wide global program.
While pharmaceutical companies have made strides in reducing Scope 1 and 2 direct emissions, the greatest opportunity for climate action now lies in Scope 3 emissions — the largest contributor to carbon impact across the industry.
Initiatives like My Green Lab Certification, ACT, Converge, and the Freezer challenge enable laboratories to reduce their own impact while engaging their suppliers in decarbonizing the supply chain. By aligning supplier expectations with trusted, industry-wide frameworks and standards, labs can drive measurable, system-wide change across the value chain.
Ready to reduce your lab’s impact? Start today with the world’s most trusted green lab certification program.
By measuring and minimizing carbon impact, your lab can become part of the solution to climate change in the pharmaceutical industry. Discover how green lab practices and industry initiatives can help your facility make a meaningful shift toward sustainability.