Green Lab Initiative
Our mission is to ensure not only that all our operations and services don’t adversely impact on the environment, but that we use our position in industry to do good, helping both the local environment and also the global environment.
Our carbon-neutral mission
Taking Action
Our green-lab initiative is just one part of our overall environmental impact strategy. We recognise that to be carbon neutral, and to have a minimal environmental impact, we must tackle environmental challenges head-on which requires a strong commitment from our leadership in order to truly make a difference to the environment. We have gone quite some way to minimise our impact on the environment, but we recognise that there is always more to do and we will continue to be a leader in sustainability within our industry.
Through our green-lab initiative we hope to make a significant difference to the local environment and to influence how the testing industry behaves with respect to the environment. We created our green-lab initiative in 2021 and have been working hard since then to completely transform the way we operate. We have implemented several measures across our laboratory and analytical services in order to reduce our environmental footprint.
These include reducing our use of chemicals and solvents, reusing single-use plastics following cleaning validation, recycling gloves, glassware and used vape devices and offsetting any residual carbon footprint.
We are committed to maintaining carbon neutrality in accordance with PAS 2060 and since 2021 we have met our ambitions through our environmental strategy. Inter Scientific has been certified by the British Standards Institute to the international standard ISO 14001 for Environmental Management, demonstrating our longstanding commitment to environmental sustainability.
Our mission is to ensure not only that all our operations and services don’t adversely impact on the environment, but that we use our position in industry to do good, helping both the local environment and also the global environment.
A leader in sustainability within our industry
Reduce
Reducing the labs reliance on chemicals and gases through method optimisation. Laboratories require harmful chemicals and gases to operate, many of which have a negative impact on the environment. Here at Inter Scientific we have sought to use the most environmentally friendly methods by carefully selecting solvents and reagents that impact the environment less than the conventional options. We have further sought to optimise our analytical methods so that they are more efficient and have shorter run times, reducing solvent waste and energy consumption. These changes have no negative impact on the quality of the data generated but make a significant contribution to the company’s reduction environmental footprint.
Reuse
Reusing plastics which are normally single-use can dramatically reduce laboratory waste and also cut-down on the number of deliveries needed by the lab. These materials are usually bulky in nature and of sufficient quality to be reused. We have carefully validated the cleaning of such materials to ensure there is not cross-contamination from analysis to analysis. The reuse of plastic materials can result in the reduction of up to 100-plastic tubes per day from our laboratory.
Recycle
Investment in schemes such as Teracycle Zero Waste Boxes enables us to recycle single-use nitrile gloves and centrifuge tubes, along with other rigid plastic and vape products through an alternative scheme which reduces all these waste which would ordinarily go to landfill. All of our commercial waste is sorted and recycled. Material which is not recyclable is used to regenerate energy such that no waste goes to landfill.
Offsetting
Where reducing, reusing and recycling are no longer possible, we have sought to offset our impact in several ways; through the use of environmentally sustainable companies, certified to ISO 14001, such as those who manage our waste, and by investing in carbon offsetting schemes to recapture the carbon emitted from the laboratory’s functions.
Going green across all areas
Green Energy
All of the electricity used by Inter Scientific across its office in the UK and EU are of 100% sustainable source, primarily wind and solar. This means that the electricity powering our equipment does not have a negative impact on the environment, just another step towards a greener laboratory.
The fundamental principles of environmental sustainability are the reduction of waste, the reusing of materials and the recycling at the end of material life. We have taken several impactful measures to reduce the amount of single-plastic waste we generate in the lab. We have achieved this through the validation of cleaning of our most volumes plastic waste reducing 1000’s of plastic tubes per year.
Green Chemistry
Through the adoption of green energy practices, we have reduced our dependence on chemicals which may be more damaging to the environment by chosing better alternatives. Green chemistry focuses on replacing less sustainable chemicals, with ‘greener’ chemicals, without impacting on the quality of data. The company is committed to significantly reducing its environmental footprint through the re-development and re-validation of test methods which are less harmful to the environment.
