In the wake of shifting US federal policies and an uneven economic landscape, clinical lab suppliers and other manufacturers are facing a unique set of challenges.
In a recent interview, James Connelly, CEO at My Green Lab, broke down the findings of the group’s 2025 Carbon Impact of Biotech and Pharma Report, highlighting how medical laboratories—both commercial and institutional—fit into the global carbon emissions puzzle.
Economic and political pressures affect clinical lab suppliers
The Carbon Impact Report briefly noted that shifting policies from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have increased uncertainty about pricing and regulation for biotech companies, including clinical lab suppliers.
“There’s been a massive shift generally in the scientific industry with pricing—how Medicare is going to do reimbursements, for example—to tariffs to the funding of scientific research,” Connelly explained. “This all ultimately impacts the top lines and bottom lines of all the lab supply companies.”
Adding to that, in the past year, President Donald Trump’s administration has pushed back against environmental, social, and governance efforts.
Connelly said these factors bear watching in terms of how they tie to carbon reduction initiatives.
“We really had a one-two punch of political and economic headwinds that will start to show up in [a future carbon report],” he added.
The invisible footprint of certain core labs
While the 2025 report tracks major publicly traded diagnostic giants like Quest Diagnostics and Labcorp, Connelly pointed out a significant gap in the current data: government-funded and nonprofit core labs.
"If you're running a core lab in a government-funded or nonprofit setting, you're an even bigger share of that [carbon emissions] pie," Connelly noted.
Because these facilities aren't captured in the commercial evaluation, their carbon impact is often overlooked, he continued.
Upstream operations are a nagging carbon problem
My Green Lab’s report considers carbon emissions from the perspective of three scopes:
- Scope 1—Emissions coming directly from lab and biotech operations.
- Scope 2—Emissions resulting from purchased energy by labs and biotech companies.
- Scope 3—Emissions occurring upstream or downstream from a company’s operations, otherwise known as the “value chain” of a product.
According to the report, the top 25 pharma and biotech companies by revenue achieved a 10 percent annual decline in Scope 1 and 2 emissions year over year. However, Scope 3 emissions represent 75 percent to 88 percent of the total carbon footprint.
“Ultimately, in any industry, the majority of the carbon impact is from your value chain,” Connelly said. “Typically, it's from purchased goods and services.”
Clinical lab certification program is available
Meanwhile, My Green Lab continues to encourage clinical lab managers to explore the group’s certification program for clinical laboratories. The program aims to help labs achieve targeted waste reduction, sustainable procurement, and culture change in clinical operations.
Supported by third-party verification from My Green Lab subsidiary Impact Laboratories, 4,500 labs in 50 countries—representing a wide swath of industries—now hold My Green Lab certification.
Last year, in vitro diagnostics company Siemens Healthineers became the first company to complete a pilot clinical lab certification for sustainability via My Green Lab’s independent certification process.
Siemens Healthineers is an investor in My Green Lab, as is LabX Media Group, the publisher of Today’s Clinical Lab.
