FACT: A research lab likely has a 400% larger carbon footprint than an oil company office

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the average research labs consumes five times more energy than a typical office space of the same size, and uses hundreds of times as much water.

Autoclaves are a major contributor to high resource consumption in research settings. Priorclave North America—a world leader in efficient autoclave design—is pleased to continue their longstanding commitment to laboratory sustainability by being the first autoclave manufacturer in the world to display the ACT Label.

ACT is a voluntary environmental impact factor label program created and overseen by My Green Lab, a leading advocate for the sustainable operation of research labs. As Allison Paradise, Executive Director at My Green Lab, explained:

“ACT stands for Accountability, Consistency, and Transparency, but this isn\’t just an acronym. ACT is a verb. That’s intentional, because we want people in the life sciences to do something, to take action.”

Until now it has been very difficult for labs to compare the environmental impact of various lab supplies and devices. The ACT Label makes this easy. Like a nutrition label, it offers a single number (similar to the nutrition label\’s calories per serving) to give a snapshot of how “healthy” a choice is. This “Environmental Impact Factor” (EIF) number might range from less than 100 to over 800, depending on the resource intensiveness of manufacturing, receiving, and using a specific supply or device.

But the ACT Label—like a nutrition label—offers more than just a rough “health number.” If you have specific concerns (such as water consumption or chemical management) you can drill down into the detailed body of the ACT Label (much as someone with high blood pressure might always check the milligrams of salt per serving when choosing a snack).

“We selected strategic partners for the ACT label pilot,” Allison Paradise noted. “[Priorclave North America CEO] Barbra [Wells] had great insight and feedback about the label design and implementation. Barbra\’s comments were really key for getting this program started right.”

As Barbra Wells explained, “Priorclave got its start by making efficient and reliable research autoclaves—the \’toughest autoclaves on the planet.\’ We\’re proud to have this opportunity to support researchers in the life sciences as they take this next big step forward in sustainability and transparency.”

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