When lab leaders think about sustainability, the first ideas that usually come to mind are recycling, plastics reduction, and energy efficiency. But according to Courtney Phillips, CEO of Matrix Fluidix, one of the biggest sustainability levers is hidden in plain sight: how laboratories service and maintain their equipment.
“Service and spare parts are the iceberg under the water of lab sustainability,” Phillips told attendees at the My Green Lab Summit 2025. They account for far more emissions than most people realize.
Service and scope 3 emissions
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines scope 3 emissions as those that are indirect and not owned or controlled by an organization—but they are often the majority of a laboratory’s greenhouse gas footprint. A 2022 Deloitte study found that service, spare parts, and end-of-life management can represent up to 65 percent of equipment-related emissions.
For lab managers, that means the way equipment is maintained can matter as much as the equipment itself.
Field service reimagined
Phillips shared that her company avoided 29 service trips in just six months, saving the equivalent of 59 metric tons of carbon emissions. How? By combining trips, carpooling, and relying on remote troubleshooting.
“Even better than combining trips is no trip in the first place,” she said. “By honing remote troubleshooting technology and giving end users the tools to help us diagnose issues, we can avoid dispatching engineers in the first place.”
Improving “first-time fix” rates also reduces the need for multiple site visits, further cutting travel-related emissions.
Smarter spare parts management
Service sustainability is not only about travel. Phillips emphasized that forecasting spare parts needs and planning ahead can prevent overnight shipments and rushed deliveries.
Matrix Fluidix equips its remote engineers with local spare parts based on historical usage data. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems track inventory across warehouses, while local sourcing shortens supply chains and reduces carbon impacts.
Phillips added that this approach reduces both costs and emissions. By minimizing the need for overnight shipments, Matrix Fluidix lowers its carbon footprint while cutting unnecessary expenses—a win for both sustainability and the bottom line.
The role of lab managers
Even if labs are not service providers themselves, managers can influence outcomes:
- Ask vendors to group preventative maintenance visits
- Embrace remote service options, including recorded training sessions
- Choose service providers that emphasize sustainable travel and vendor take-back programs
- Encourage adoption of remote user groups, which Phillips described as among the most useful meetings for knowledge sharing and problem-solving
Small steps with big impact
Phillips closed by reminding labs that sustainability progress is cumulative. She cited a University of Chicago study showing that a single water-bottle refill station can save 45,000 single-use bottles per year.
“Cherry picking is not only allowed, but encouraged because we have to start somewhere,” she said. “Small actions can have enormous benefits.”
Lab sustainability doesn’t always require new technology or major investments. Sometimes it’s about rethinking what’s already happening behind the scenes.
