Identifying Hotspots in Hospitals and Research Institutions

Research Line: Circular Safe Hospitals / Seed Call: i4CS October 2024

This project involves a comprehensive analysis of the most used consumables, within hospital and university laboratories. We define “laboratory consumables” as a collection of commonly used disposable materials such as pipettes, pipette tips, tubes, and other single-use plastics, as well as essential reagents including ethanol, extraction kits, and cell culture media. By leveraging procurement data, the project seeks to identify scope 3 emission hotspots and generate actionable insights for more sustainable practices, including alternatives to commonly used laboratory consumables.

Objectives and route to impact

The project followed a three-phase approach to assess the environmental impact of laboratory consumables in healthcare and academic settings. First, procurement data from Wageningen University & Research and University Medical Center Utrecht was gathered, filtered and labelled with defined categories of commonly used lab consumables. Second, CO2e emissions were estimated using spend-based emission factors recently described by De Paepe et al., 2024. Last, footprint of each category was analysed and compared between the two institutes.

Alignment with Circular Safe Hospitals and Sustainability Goals

This research aligns with the Circular Safe Hospitals (CSH) initiative and the Green Deal Sustainable Healthcare 3.0 by addressing critical knowledge gaps on the environmental impact of laboratory consumables. It prioritizes high-impact interventions and offers scalable solutions to reduce reliance on raw materials and emissions.

Transdisciplinary Approach and Impact

The project integrates expertise from environmental science (WUR) and healthcare (UMC Utrecht), ensuring a balanced academic and applied perspective. Collaboration with procurement departments grounds the research in real-world data, supporting practical implementation of circular alternatives. During the project, team members collaborated with project groups of UMCNL and Zorg Inkoop Netwerk Nederland to further strengthen the potential for large-scale impact.

Contribution to cross-EWUU collaboration

The project team consists of researchers from UMC Utrecht and WUR, representing a diverse range of roles, including management, a researcher, a lab technician and a sustainability coordinator. Besides, our stakeholders and partners include procurement experts from both UMC Utrecht and WUR.

Outcomes

In June 2026, the team delivered their final report. The report presents a spend-based hotspot analysis, comparing procurement patterns between hospital and university laboratories to identify the laboratory consumables that contribute most to scope 3 carbon emissions. By quantifying and ranking these hotspots, the analysis provides an evidence-based foundation for understanding the climate impacts of laboratory operations and highlights potential areas for circularity and lower-impact alternatives.

Key findings:

• Frequently ordered laboratory consumables accounted for approximately 2,073 tonnes CO₂e at WUR and 5,264 tonnes CO₂e at UMCU.
• A small number of product categories were responsible for the majority of emissions:
  • At WUR, the top 15 categories accounted for 86.5% of total laboratory-related emissis.
  • At UMCU, the top 15 categories accounted for 96.8% of emissions.

• Laboratory kits, particularly detection kits and sequencing/editing kits, dominated the footprint at both institutions.

• Common disposable products such as lab gloves, pipette tips, Falcon tubes, and PCR/cell culture plates consistently emerged as major hotspots.

• Institution-specific differences
  • Antibodies were a major hotspot at UMCU.
  • Primers, oligonucleotides, and solvents such as acetonitrile were more prominent at WUR.

Methodological challenges are also discussed, including data completeness and footprint uncertainty. In addition, the implications for Circular Safe Hospitals and the Green Deal Sustainable Healthcare 3.0 targets are described.

The outcomes aim to raise awareness of the footprint of laboratories in hospitals and universities and encourage future research in this area to support data-driven decisions for sustainable laboratory management.

Download the full report below.

And click here to download the suplementary table.

Team

• Desiree Beaujean – WUR
• Serena Rizzo – WUR
• Joep Sprangers – UMC Utrecht
• Tessa Keukens – WUR
• Wouter Hoenderdaal – WUR