‘How Green is your Lab?’
The ‘How Green is your Lab?’ symposium was additionally supported by NHS England Pathology and Greener NHS and took part at the Royal College of Pathologists (RCPath)’s offices in London. Attending on behalf of the IBMS were IBMS President Debra Padgett and Council Members, Jennifer Collins and Sheri Scott.
Featuring a packed line up of speakers from across healthcare, this in-person event provided a vital opportunity for pathology network leaders and leaders in sustainability to come together and discuss ideas.
Debates were encouraged through roundtable discussions, enabling participants to recognise opportunities for integrating sustainability and decarbonisation in pathology labs across England. Attendee feedback and attitudes throughout the day point to the success of the event in supporting key staff to create a greener legacy for the future of pathology in England.
Pathology and the Greener NHS Agenda
In October 2020, the NHS became the world's first health system to commit to a target of reaching net zero emissions.
As established by the World Health Organization, climate change has the potential to reverse decades of improvements in healthcare. Evidently, there is a need for pathology laboratories to consider their main sources of CO2 emissions and to do their part to support the greener NHS agenda.
Erika Denton, Senior Responsible Officer for Net Zero Clinical Transformation, the first keynote speaker, drove home this point in her introductory presentation – highlighting the huge array of opportunities existing across healthcare and the NHS to support the global sustainability agenda.
Pathology, in particular, was spotlighted by several speakers throughout the day as a pivotal agent in its potential to support this greener NHS ambition.
Key points from the symposium
Pathology is involved in around 70% of all diagnostics across the NHS, with more than 1.5 billion tests performed annually. Unfortunately, many of these tests can be unnecessary repeats, indicating a need to streamline this process.
James Cook, NHS England Director for Diagnostics and Transport, commented, “There is a need for a systemic approach with a focus on end-to-end patient pathways. This includes the buildings we work in, the chemicals used, etc. – the net-zero agenda touches on all of these areas.”
In his presentation, James spoke about the need to facilitate the overall transformation of pathology in England, alongside the greener agenda, for better patient outcomes in general; by implementing digitisation, investing in technology, looking at AI, standardising staffing arrangements and streamlining processes for transporting samples such as slides for microscopy. Through the digitisation of processes, like implementing AI reading of sample slides instead of transporting these across the country, or even simply by opting for electric cars instead, we could make a huge difference to emissions while also leading to quicker and more accurate reporting for patients.
One key point referred to throughout the event was the vast amount of energy consumed by laboratories compared to office spaces; 3-10 times more. Katharine Hayden, President of the Association for Clinical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine (ACB), explained that laboratories in pathology fields process so many samples per day, which uses up energy and water, and produces a lot of plastic waste. Ben Tongue, NHS England’s Digital Net Zero Lead, additionally brought light to the ways in which stains in labs are just thrown away, with chemicals and toxins often released to the environment.
Clearly, there are many opportunities for the pathology community to consider more sustainable solutions. Collaboration is key to achieve net-zero goals, where events like these are crucial so that people can share suggestions and quick wins. From designing energy-efficient buildings that host laboratories, to opting for reusable speculums and sterilising entire trays at once, it is clear that every transaction needs to be weighed up against its affect on patient outcomes.
Next steps
For laboratories that are uncertain about how sustainable they are at present, tools such as the European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EFLM) Green and Sustainable Laboratories certificate or UCL’s laboratory efficiency assessment framework can be of help, by helping to assess and identify ways to lower consumption in key areas.
In her closing statement, Debra Padgett pointed to the need of more baseline data to assess the impact of the changes we make in pathology laboratories. However, we also need to start implementing quick wins now.
Debra adds, “We need to look at our existing repository of information and think about how we build on this, how we link with NHS colleagues and create case studies of good sustainable practice for others to draw from.”
The IBMS would like to extend a huge thank you to all participants, as well as colleagues from RCPath and ACB for their help in running this symposium.