Share thisObjective verification and standards can help vivarium managers evaluate the green credentials of products and services.
Progress towards a more sustainable society with a low environmental impact affects many commercial processes, products, and services. Governments and organisations of all kinds are increasingly concerned with achieving and demonstrating sound environmental performance and sustainable development by minimising the impact of their activities, products, and services on the environment. They do so in the context of public concern, increasingly stringent legislation, the development of economic policies and standards, together with other measures that foster environmental protection.
These drivers gradually have generated both interest and initiatives among providers and end-users to reduce the environmental impact of laboratory operations. Laboratories, and specifically laboratory animal facilities, utilise significant amounts of energy, renewable and non-renewable resources, and consumables. Laboratories also generate considerable volumes of waste, both conventional and hazardous. The question arises of how suppliers can make valid environmental claims about the processes, products and services they provide and how end-users can objectively evaluate or verify the “green” credentials of particular products and services? To meet these objectives, there are a number of recognised environmental legislation and standards available to assess the environmental impact status of an organisation’s products and services.
Commercial organisations have recognised the commercial benefits of their products being seen as “green” and have incorporated green strategies into their marketing and use media outlets to publicise their organisation’s environmental policies and any environmental certification. These claims may be reliable and correctly communicated but, occasionally, the claims are based on marketing strategy and not upon actual facts. This review examined data for the years 2009-2010 for the environmental strategies of eight major laboratory rodent cage manufacturers, four from the United States and four from Europe. In total, these producers represent more than 80% of the world rodent cage production. Environmental strategy in this case is defined as commitment, policy, action, system certifications, and product certifications.