Biogen Achieves 100% My Green Lab Certification: A Sustainability Milestone

In 2023, Biogen became the first large biotech company to achieve 100% My Green Lab Certification across all its laboratories, setting a new standard for sustainability in the biotech industry. By improving efficiency and reducing waste, water, and energy consumption, Biogen has been decreasing its environmental impact and advancing its commitment to sustainability.
 
Biogen’s sustainability efforts reflect the company’s aspiration to foster a healthier, more sustainable future for all. "Employees recognize the link between human and environmental health," emphasized Biogen’s President and CEO Chris Viehbacher. Biogen’s collective commitment to sustainability and focused effort enabled them to achieve certification for every lab through the My Green Lab program two years before its target.
 
The Path to 100% Certification
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“Biogen has embraced sustainability as a core element of our operational priorities,” said Katie Woodward, Interim Head of Sustainability. “Given rapidly evolving stakeholder expectations, we regularly monitor and act on a range of sustainability concerns. We believe this can help improve efficiency and address the interests of customers, employees, regulators and other stakeholders. Our commitment to the My Green Lab program is part of our broader ambition.”
 
The certification effort began with a focused pilot program involving a small group of labs across the Research and Development (R&D) and Product and Technology Development (PTD) functions. The early success of this initiative laid the foundation for broader adoption. “Biogen laboratory teams showed enthusiasm in the My Green Lab Certification pilot. Based on my colleagues’ interest and desire to make our labs more sustainable, we brought the program to leadership to ensure we had global commitment,” said Tooba Gilani, Senior Associate II, EHS (Site Environmental Compliance Lead), who spearheaded Biogen’s My Green Lab work. “Along with driving energy efficiency in our labs, this work has led to other environmental projects and motivating many of my colleagues,” Gilani said.
 
To achieve full implementation, Biogen established a Core Committee to guide the process. This committee, along with Lab Ambassadors who volunteered to lead the implementation of the program in their individual labs, played a crucial role at key steps in the certification process.

Implementing Sustainable Practices
 
The My Green Lab Certification process begins with a Baseline Assessment Survey, where lab members complete a self-assessment on 14 topics that include recycling and waste reduction, resource management, green chemistry and green biologics and infrastructure energy, allowing My Green Lab to identify current best practices and to recommend additional sustainability actions. Labs then implement these recommendations over several months before retaking the survey to measure their progress. Based on the progress, labs receive an overall score and a certification level, along with new recommendations for ongoing improvement.
 
For Biogen, the valuable insights gained from this program have facilitated the development of sustainable solutions targeting energy and water usage, waste management, over-purchasing, and beyond.

Enhancing Education
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To support educational efforts around Biogen’s sustainability practices, the Core Committee created detailed site-specific documents. “To ensure education across laboratories on Biogen’s practices, we created an internal document for each site with common Sustainability FAQs that were found in the certificate assessment, and guided laboratories to review this document prior to certification,” said Gilani.

Lab Ambassador Irene Jenkins, Engineer II, underscored the crucial role of education throughout the process. “I think education was most important to our sustainability efforts,” she said. “Our baseline results were heavily affected by the number of ‘I don’t know’ responses, and just by becoming informed and agreeing on sustainability goals for the lab, we significantly improved our score.”

Energy Savings

“A few actions come to mind which improved our certification score compared to our baseline. One action was to audit our lab instruments to identify and label equipment that could be set to stand-by mode or unplugged to reduce the energy demand of idle equipment,” noted Jenkins. “Additionally, our freezers were placed on a scheduled defrost rotation to optimize efficiency.”

Waste Reduction

Understanding proper waste reduction strategies has helped Biogen find ways to reduce, recycle, and reuse. Laboratory changes include switching from single-use plastics to reusable glassware, recycling Styrofoam and soft plastics, and reusing biotainers for Stack Smashing Protector (SSP) buffers.
 
“Another action was to research vendor recycling programs and improve signage on appropriate recycling practices,” said Jenkins.

Improved Purchasing

Biogen’s team learned practical lessons throughout the certification process that will help drive future decisions, including more widespread understanding of how to read ACT Eco Labels and how to use Energy Star to inform purchasing decisions. “This will help us buy materials with a smaller environmental footprint and equipment that uses energy more efficiently,” said Jenkins. “Additionally, one focus group was tasked with researching then presenting resources available to guide informed purchasing decisions.”
 
As a result, one Biogen lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts, began using Biotix pipette tips, which contain 30% less plastic than other products, and adopted Polycarbin as a solution for the closed-loop recycling of single-use scientific plastics such as pipette tip boxes. This resulted in the recycling of approximately 411 kilograms of plastic in just seven months. The team is now helping to share this information with colleagues in other labs to encourage its widespread adoption.

Navigating Challenges
 
The journey toward certification was not without its challenges. One of Biogen’s key obstacles was the differing and complicated nature of its labs. Each lab has unique functions and processes, and some have strict operational standards that are difficult to modify for sustainability purposes. “In those labs, we focused on what we could change toward sustainability rather than what we couldn’t,” noted Gilani. Through education, communication, and the implementation of best practices learned through the My Green Lab Certification program, sustainability became a priority every lab could work towards—while maintaining strict standards for safety and quality, among other considerations.
 
For Jenkins, awareness was the key to changing lab practices. "Our largest challenge was a lack of awareness, which could lead to default behavior," she explained. “For example, regular freezer defrosts and coil cleaning was not a consistent proactive maintenance activity for us; instead, it was a reactive strategy when a freezer would fail. By becoming aware of a more effective cadence for freezer defrosts and maintenance to ensure optimal freezer efficiency, we are now proactively preventing failure events.”
 
Through monthly check-in meetings and feedback loops between lab leaders, Jenkins and her team ensured that all members remained informed and active. "By sharing the responsibility to make change, everyone stayed engaged in the initiative," said Jenkins.
 
Cultural Shift Towards Sustainability
 
Biogen's certification journey resulted in significant advancements in sustainable lab operations, directly contributing to the organization’s corporate climate goals and demonstrating that change is achievable. "The parameter I am most proud of is 100% engagement from my lab in this initiative," said Jenkins. “Every member of the lab ended this project more informed and having helped build our target sustainability practices.”
 
Marielle Thorne, Manager, R&D Lab Operations, highlights how the certification process unveiled new sustainability opportunities. "Early expectations were that we might look at recycling waste or maybe purchasing greener products. As we progressed, we discovered many areas we had not thought about as being part of our sustainability goals,” Thorne said. “Now 100% of the lab’s freezers are at -70,” she continued.
 
The My Green Lab Certification process not only led to substantial improvements but also catalyzed a cultural shift. Jenkins recalls the achievement lab members felt upon receiving their certification plaques: "You could feel a sense of pride in the effort and changes that took place to reduce our footprint on the planet," she said.
 
Lessons Learned and Future Impact

​The program not only resulted in immediate environmental benefits but cultivated a lasting cultural commitment to sustainability. As Thorne observed, "We have learned that there is a strong desire within the scientific community to drive sustainable change. They are engaged, willing to make the change, and explore new solutions for sustainability."
 
Furthermore, Gilani highlighted the program’s significance: “My Green Lab Certification has been at Biogen for four years now and 100% of labs have completed the certification program. This dedication has showcased that Biogen is committed to sustainability at the lab level, and employees have clear spaces to talk about goals and projects related to sustainability through the culture that has been built over the years,” she concluded.
 
The success of Biogen’s My Green Lab Certification initiative has established a significant benchmark within the biotech industry. Not only are 100% of Biogen’s labs certified, as of publish date, 56.7% of the company’s labs achieved Green status, the highest certification level possible.
 
"Biogen’s pivotal milestone demonstrates how a coordinated, collaborative effort can drive transformative change in laboratory sustainability,” said Scott Grant, Vice President of Certifications, My Green Lab. “This achievement reflects Biogen’s leadership and commitment to integrating sustainable practices across their operations and serves as a powerful example for the entire industry.”

Inspired to start your lab’s sustainability journey? Learn more about My Green Lab Certification here.