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,” said Scott Weitze, Vice President of Research and Technical Standards at My Green Lab and Impact Laboratories.
As Weitze explains, 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.
The market is shifting from “tell me your product is sustainable” to “show me how your product is sustainable.” Scott Weitze, VP of Research and Technical Standards at My Green Lab and Impact Laboratories, explores how stronger regulations, third-party verification, and credible sustainability data are changing the way lab products are evaluated while helping purchasers make more informed choices.
EmpCo and the Changing Regulatory Landscape
In the European Union, the Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive, or EmpCo introduced strict requirements for how environmental claims and ecolabels are used in the region. Sustainability claims must now be specific and backed by evidence.
Similar efforts are emerging globally, signaling a broader move toward greater accountability in communicating green claims.
Weitze notes regulation is only part of what’s driving this shift. “This isn’t just about compliance,” he said. “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, minimizing 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.
“Communicating environmental accomplishments and goals in a clear, comparable, and trustworthy way requires independent verification, instead of a slick marketing campaign,” Weitze said.
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.
The My Green Lab ACT Ecolabel Program for lab products was designed to bring credibility and consistency to product sustainability. The program, which is aligned with global regulations on sustainability reporting, is based on third-party verification of science-based sustainability attributes and claims through ACT Ecolabel certification.
For procurement teams, the ACT Ecolabel provides greater confidence in purchasing decisions that support sustainability goals and Scope 3 reductions. The ACT Ecolabel framework also enables manufacturers to communicate sustainability accomplishments clearly and consistently.
For Weitze, who spent 17 years working in life sciences manufacturing and product development before joining My Green Lab, the growing adoption of rigorous standards reflects how the industry has evolved. “My experience gives me a clear view of how much the expectations around transparency and sustainability have changed,” he said.
The response to these recent changes in expectation is rapidly taking shape. Distributors and purchasing platforms are joining the ACT Ecolabel Channel Partners to incorporate third-party-verified sustainability information from the ACT Ecolabel directly into their product catalogs in response to customers asking for, and often requiring, this information.
“ACT Ecolabel certification is also being added as a requirement in RFPs, because procurement teams won’t, and shouldn’t, rely on any unclear green claim. They need standardized, globally applicable information they can actually use, and they need context and numerous sustainability data points to make informed decisions,” Weitze said.
Product Carbon Footprints and Beyond
As demand for credible sustainability data grows, product carbon footprints (PCFs) have become a more common tool for understanding product-level GHG emissions. But PCFs alone do not provide a complete or accurate picture of a product’s environmental impact, or give purchasers the information they need to easily compare products.
Weitze explains that PCF values from different manufacturers, even for the same product type, are not directly comparable unless they follow the same product category rules, and product category rules currently do not exist for laboratory products. That distinction is particularly important as organizations look to product-level carbon data to inform procurement and Scope 3 strategies.
“Estimated product carbon footprints can be directionally useful, but carbon is only part of a product’s environmental profile,” Weitze said. The ACT Ecolabel incorporates available estimated PCF information using high-quality PCF frameworks, while also evaluating additional sustainability attributes through a standardized framework. This gives purchasers multiple ways to evaluate and compare the environmental impacts of the products they buy.
The Future of Credible Sustainability Claims
As the regulations and expectations around sustainable products change, terms such as “green,” “sustainable,” or “eco-conscious” are no longer sufficient. Sustainability claims will require evidence behind them. For the life sciences industry, greater transparency and standardization creates a strong foundation for identifying lower-impact products and using procurement to support broader decarbonization goals. Manufacturers gain a credible way to demonstrate progress and reduce regulatory risk, while purchasers gain verified information they can use to make more informed decisions.