Summary:
Siemens Healthineers has launched sustainable clinical lab solutions, including Atellica analyzers certified by the My Green Lab ACT Ecolabel, to reduce environmental impact through decreased water, energy, and plastic use.
Takeaways:
- Certified sustainability: Atellica analyzers are the first of their kind to earn the ACT Ecolabel, signaling verified environmental responsibility across their lifecycle.
- Efficiency gains: Labs using Atellica systems can reduce energy consumption by up to 48% and water use compared to similar systems, without compromising performance.
- Expanded green initiatives: Siemens Healthineers supports further lab sustainability through restored equipment programs and My Green Lab Certification services across the EU and UK.
Siemens Healthineers announces new sustainability solutions for clinical labs that focus on reducing the environmental impact of analyzing clinical laboratory samples. Historically, in vitro diagnostics testing has required large amounts of water, energy, and plastic consumables that contribute significantly to the environmental footprint of healthcare operations. Clinical labs may operate around the clock to test patient samples. Now both the environment and the laboratories’ bottom lines can benefit from technology that reduces waste, energy, and water consumption. The Atellica analyzers from Siemens Healthineers are the first clinical laboratory diagnostic instrumentation to achieve the My Green Lab ACT Ecolabel Certification.1
ACT Ecolabel Evaluates Key Environmental Impact Categories
The ACT Ecolabel evaluates products across key environmental impact categories—including manufacturing practices, energy and water consumption, chemicals, waste, and packaging—and distills this information into a total score that helps scientists and procurement experts better identify sustainable products for their healthcare facilities. This globally recognized standard provides transparent, third-party verified environmental impact data for laboratory consumables, chemicals, and equipment.
Industry-leading analyzers from Siemens Healthineers for labs of varying sizes were rigorously evaluated and independently certified through My Green Lab’s comprehensive assessment process. The Atellica analyzers reduce impact across the product lifecycle—from manufacturing and packaging to innovative assay performance that reduces waste, energy, and water during operation. The ACT Ecolabel applies to 12 Atellica products, including the Atellica Solution and Atellica CI Analyzer. These integratable analyzers for clinical chemistry and immunoassay testing consume less water than other comparable systems.2
Reducing Water and Energy Use
By using Atellica analyzers for common patient testing needs, a lab can reduce its water and energy use and benefit from a positive ripple effect. The analyzers have been engineered intentionally to do the lab’s heavy lifting, conserving resources as they run hundreds of patient samples hourly. In reported use cases,laboratories have reduced their energy consumption using Atellica analyzers from Siemens Healthineers by up to 48%.3 Labs using these instruments also benefit from turnaround times as low as 10 minutes for certain high-priority samples.
“At Siemens Healthineers, we are committed to reducing our environmental footprint, not only through our own initiatives but also by empowering our customers to run their labs sustainably. Resilient performance and environmental responsibility matter to labs of all sizes. From our technology to certification support, we offer unparalleled value that will benefit clinical laboratories,” says Sharon Bracken, head of Diagnostics for Siemens Healthineers.
Certified Atellica Program Offers Restored Instruments
Another new offering from Siemens Healthineers is the Certified Atellica program.4 Instruments are rigorously restored to the equivalent standard of a new instrument and offer the same high performance as new analyzers, including the latest hardware and software updates. For many regions, these analyzers are now available for resource-conscious healthcare organizations seeking a sustainable investment. The program is estimated to save up to 100,000kg of scrap per year—the equivalent to nearly 50 city buses.5
Programs Available in the EU and UK
For labs striving to achieve greater impact than what technology alone can deliver, Siemens Healthineers is now the sole IVD manufacturer recognized by My Green Lab as the Accelerator Partner for the European Union and the United Kingdom. Through this collaboration, the accredited consulting team from Siemens Healthineers brings My Green Lab Certification to labs to help drive meaningful, measurable sustainability progress.
“The My Green Lab program is a useful tool to establish how sustainable the activities in the laboratory are and how to improve,” says Lubomyra Szymanskyj, a technical manager in the lab at the Northern Care Alliance – The Royal Oldham. “The project confirmed that the biochemistry department at The Royal Oldham Hospital, which is part of Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust (NCA), was already well under way in implementing strategies to work towards delivering a Net Zero NHS. Taking part in the My Green Lab Certification program has helped raise awareness in the laboratory with staff and will help create a positive culture change with staff working together towards the NCA Green Plan.”
Featured Image: Lightpoet | Dreamstime.com
References
1 The ‘My Green Lab’ and ‘ACT’ registered trademarks are owned and controlled by My Green Lab Inc.
2 Atellica Solution average water consumption with Atellica IM 1300 and Atellica CH 930 Analyzers for a representative worklist of the top-used assays by customers. See Atellica Solution Sustainability Report (Nov. 2023) Data on file.
3 Siemens Healthineers Shape 24 Spotlight Together towards a sustainable tomorrow. The outcomes achieved by Siemens Healthineers customers were achieved in the customers’ unique settings. Since there is no typical hospital or laboratory, and many variables exist (e.g., hospital/laboratory size, case mix, level of IT adoption), there can be no guarantee that others will achieve the same results.
4 Rigorously restored systems that adhere to the same quality assurance measures used for factory-new systems. Certified to Siemens Healthineers’ Proven Excellence standard. Product availability varies by country and is subject to varying regulatory requirements.
5 Data on file.
