Greener Labs, Smarter Choices: What ACT Ecolabel 2.0 Means for Clinical Laboratories

Sustainability in clinical and medical laboratories is no longer a peripheral concern—it has become a strategic framework for addressing environmental impact, reducing operational risk, meeting evolving regulatory expectations, and achieving institutional goals. With increasing pressure to reduce environmental effects while maintaining high standards of quality and compliance, lab managers are seeking tools to help make purchasing decisions that are economically and ecologically responsible. 

The ACT label (accountability, consistency, and transparency), developed by the nonprofit organization My Green Lab, is a key resource in this effort. It’s a widely adopted and standardized eco-label designed to visually communicate the environmental impact of laboratory products. Last month, My Green Lab debuted its revised ACT label 2.0, adding several new important features and metrics to enhance the label’s functionality and usability for sustainability-conscious labs. 

In this article, we’ll highlight the key changes and discuss their relevance for clinical lab operations. Whether you're updating procurement policies or planning for long-term sustainability, understanding the ACT Ecolabel 2.0 is a smart step forward.

The ACT Ecolabel 2.0: Structure and scoring system

The new label system introduces a scoring framework for equipment, consumables, and reagents centered around the Environmental Performance Factor (EPF)—a score out of 100, where higher numbers indicate better environmental performance. 

Each product also receives a highly visible medal ranking, from bronze, silver, gold, and platinum, up to the highest designation: green. This tiered system offers an at-a-glance indication of a product’s sustainability credentials. The updated label contains sections color-coded based on performance, with a gradient system that transitions from green (most sustainable) to red (least sustainable). 

The EPF score is derived from a weighted, scientific measurement for each discrete area of environmental assessment:

• Product
• Packaging
• Manufacturing facility
• Company greenhouse gas emissions
• Product carbon reporting
• Improvements (highlighting ongoing sustainability efforts)
• Innovation (bonus points for novel environmental solutions)

Additionally, all ACT 2.0 labels now include a QR code that links directly to detailed documentation supporting the claims made on the label. This allows purchasers to access in-depth data about each product’s environmental profile, including audit details and scoring rationale, enhancing trust and transparency.

What clinical laboratories need to know about ACT labels

The ACT Ecolabel 2.0 enables labs to objectively compare products, support sustainability compliance, and make procurement decisions that balance environmental impact with operational requirements. As procurement becomes a strategic function within lab management, tools like the ACT label help bridge the gap between technical performance and environmental responsibility. 

For clinical and medical labs, ACT Ecolabel 2.0 intersects with operational priorities in five critical ways:

• Transparent procurement: Enables lab managers to benchmark sustainability across similar products, ensuring alignment with internal green lab standards or broader environmental initiatives
• Regulatory alignment: Supports documentation processes for green certifications, internal carbon accounting, and state-level sustainability mandates
• Operational efficiency: Helps identify products that consume less energy and water, use recyclable packaging, or require fewer hazardous materials, leading to cost savings and reduced environmental compliance burdens
• Vendor accountability: Upstream supplier improvements are encouraged through environmental data disclosures and supply chain transparency, supporting climate action and net-zero goals
• Balanced product performance: Evaluates performance longevity and reusability alongside environmental impact, avoiding trade-offs that could compromise diagnostic quality or operational continuity

With its detailed scoring and clear indicators, the new label system enables lab professionals to integrate sustainability into core procurement decisions. making informed choices that are both environmentally and operationally sound. The inclusion of facility- and company-level data also helps organizations understand their supply chain's broader environmental impact, aiding in institutional sustainability reporting and shrewder evaluation of vendors and suppliers.

Collectively, the new features offer a credible, nuanced, and practical tool for labs navigating the complex intersection of sustainability, quality, and cost. Adherence to these principles enables lab managers to embed environmental stewardship into routine purchasing, without compromising the performance or reliability that clinical operations demand.

Collaborating for a sustainable future

My Green Lab’s community-based, multifaceted approach to the design of the ACT 2.0 label represents a significant step forward in harmonizing environmental accountability with the rigorous demands of laboratory operations.

“Collaboration is really the key to overcoming the interconnected issues that we're facing in terms of sustainability,” remarked Jen Valsler, director of sustainable procurement at AstraZeneca, during a recent webinar. “We want to be able to use this label to drive better procurement to drive better achievement of our own sustainability goals.” 

“We really feel the importance of third-party common standards,” said Matthew Yamatin, sustainability program director at Thermo Fisher Scientific. “That's why we've decided, for many years now, to partner with My Green Lab across their various programs,” he said, noting that Thermo Fisher now offers more than 300 products with ACT labels, with over 900 more products currently in the development pipeline.

As clinical laboratories face growing pressure to demonstrate environmental responsibility, tools like the ACT label offer an evidenced-based, transparent way to take meaningful action. It empowers lab managers to go beyond checklists and embrace a holistic view of sustainability that includes product life cycles, supplier practices, and operational impact.