Price, performance, reliability, and quality remain fundamental considerations when evaluating products and suppliers. Yet sustainability is quickly becoming another point of differentiation.
According to the 2026 Sustainable Procurement Barometer from EcoVadis and Accenture, 98% of surveyed organizations have begun embedding ESG information into procurement processes, and nearly half maintain visibility into sustainability practices across most Tier 1 suppliers.1
My Green Lab is seeing a similar shift within life sciences, with sustainability metrics increasingly used to evaluate supplier relationships and expand product consideration beyond long-established choices.
The New Procurement Landscape:
Sustainability's Growing Influence on Capital Planning in Life Sciences
For years, sustainability initiatives in the life sciences industry were primarily associated with environmental goals, corporate responsibility programs, and regulatory compliance. Today, sustainability is playing a growing role in supplier selection, procurement strategies, and capital investments.
Across pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology firms, CDMOs, CROs, and laboratory suppliers, procurement teams are seeking greater visibility into environmental performance throughout the supply chain. To better understand how these priorities are evolving, First American Equipment Finance spoke with My Green Lab, a nonprofit organization focused on advancing sustainability in scientific research and laboratory environments.
Their perspective points to a broader shift: sustainability’s influence is moving beyond procurement and into longer-term investment planning.
Supplier Qualification is Evolving
“Sustainability is fast becoming the second or third highest-weighted criterion when differentiating between suppliers and products.” – My Green Lab
For life sciences organizations, purchasing decisions may consider not only product performance and price, but also how products are manufactured, how suppliers manage environmental impacts, and how individual products align with broader sustainability goals.
Transparency Supports More Informed Decisions
As sustainability becomes a more meaningful factor in procurement, buyers need consistent, reliable information to compare their options.
“Positive change starts with transparency. With transparency, buyers understand both the positives and negatives of any procurement decision and can therefore better align the decision-making process with their goals.” – My Green Lab
My Green Lab’s ACT Environmental Impact Factor Ecolabel is one example of how the industry is responding to that need. The program provides third-party verified environmental information for laboratory consumables, chemicals, and equipment. It helps buyers evaluate multiple aspects of a product’s environmental impact, rather than relying on a single data point.
That holistic approach is critical. My Green Lab notes that organizations can sometimes focus on a single attribute when assessing sustainability, such as power consumption for large equipment or recyclability for single-use plastics. Evaluating multiple factors across a product’s lifecycle provides a more complete picture and helps procurement teams make decisions that better align with organizational priorities.
Sustainability is Influencing Capital Investments
Sustainability considerations may begin with procurement, but their implications are extending into facilities and operations as well.
This shift is already visible across the market. Deloitte recently reported that sustainability remained a top business priority among surveyed executives globally, and that 83% of their organizations increased sustainability investments during the previous year.2
Within life sciences, My Green Lab is seeing sustainability goals increasingly reflected in laboratory and building design through investments in HVAC systems, facility improvements, and waste-reduction processes. Beyond environmental benefits, these initiatives can improve safety, increase operational efficiency, and lower long-term operating costs.
“For finance and facilities teams, this is increasingly becoming a capital planning question, not just a sustainability one. From beginning to end, organizations are seeing both the need for and the benefit of investing in more sustainable science.” – My Green Lab
New Capital Planning Considerations
As sustainability goals create new equipment, facility, and infrastructure needs, finance leaders have an opportunity to reconsider how their long-term capital plans account for them.
Rather than viewing these projects in isolation, organizations can evaluate them alongside planned equipment replacements, facility improvements, research initiatives, technology investments, and other demands on capital. Taking this broader view can help identify overlaps, determine appropriate timing, and assess the best funding approach.
While some projects may fit within existing budgets, financing can provide additional flexibility for larger or more complex initiatives by helping distribute costs over time while preserving capital for other priorities.
The goal is not simply to fund a more sustainable asset, but to take a longer-term view of how evolving operational and procurement priorities fit within the organization’s overall investment strategy.
Preparing for What’s Ahead
My Green Lab expects sustainability's influence on procurement decisions to continue growing over the next three to five years. Greater transparency may create new opportunities for suppliers that can demonstrate environmental performance while giving buyers more information to compare products and supplier relationships.
Proactive sustainability planning can help organizations identify capital needs earlier and account for them in long-term planning. Organizations that align operational investments with evolving procurement expectations will be better positioned to differentiate themselves competitively.
My Green Lab offers a simple principle for navigating that evolution:
“Don’t strive for perfection. Push for progress, for yourselves and from your suppliers.” – My Green Lab
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