Global clinical trials are increasing in complexity as they become more decentralized and technology‑enabled. Models such as telemedicine, eConsent, wearables, and remote data capture bring heightened expectations for data governance, real‑time oversight, and risk‑based quality management. This sophistication is amplified by a rise in biomarker‑driven precision medicine and companion diagnostics to achieve pivotal endpoints.
While quality and cost effectiveness are always expected of a clinical trial, another requirement is increasingly prevalent – sustainability. The scientific community is under increasing pressure to reduce the adverse environmental impact of the vital work it performs.
The sustainability of lab practices is no longer “nice to have”; it is becoming central to trial execution, resilience, and data integrity.
To illustrate this dynamic, we asked Gavin Henshaw, Dean McLean, and Karen Tait from IQVIA Laboratories, to take us through the journey of a biological sample from collection at a clinical site through to post-analysis storage.
Meet the experts
How are outdated lab practices impacting sustainability before sample collection even starts?
Gavin Hershaw: Sample collection kits, requisition forms, unique identifier labels, and intricate instructions all shape how smoothly samples move from patient to lab. Traditional paper-based processes create redundancy, increase potential for errors, and contribute to the use of unnecessary materials being shipped, stored, and disposed of.
Workflows that still rely on paper requisitions can generate query rates of up to 25 percent, often due to incomplete or misinterpreted information recorded by hand.
By contrast, electronic requisitions apply built-in data validation rules similar to those we see in every online form – and the potential to reduce queries to as low as one percent.
What impact could basic technology upgrades have on procurement practices?
GH: Simply by replacing paper forms with electronic systems, labs can reduce physical materials, eliminate the risk of rework, and improve traceability throughout the process.
Intelligent electronic inventory management reduces over-ordering of sample collection kits. Such systems can better align test kit supply with actual demand, including patient visit schedules and attendance patterns, to help reduce surplus and expired inventory. This simple technology enhancement produces a compounding environmental benefit when trials scale across hundreds of locations worldwide.
What are the key sustainability considerations when creating study designs?
GH: Decisions made during study design also influence the volume of packaging, plastics, and temperature-controlled materials introduced into the system. Clever kit design – including the ability to swap components and extend kit lifespan – can reduce unnecessary waste before samples ever leave the physician’s office. In parallel, laboratories are taking a systematic approach, reducing unnecessary or duplicate components to minimize the environmental impact of test kits without compromising protocol requirements.
Ensuring a high-quality management system within the laboratory ensures fewer repeat draws due to missing information or labeling errors. The result is reduced burden on physicians and, most importantly, a better patient experience. As trials increasingly go global, this is an important consideration for expanding trial populations.
Where are the sustainability pain points in sample logistics?
Karen Tait: When preparing frozen sample shipments, two very familiar materials are used to safeguard sample integrity: expanded polystyrene (or “EPS”) packaging and dry ice. These materials have among the highest environmental impact of any in laboratory testing, and clinical labs are now seeking to manage their use more carefully to reduce carbon emissions.
As trials scale internationally, the carbon footprint of sample transportation quickly grows. Samples cross many borders and continents, making sustainability inseparable from logistics strategy. In this context, even small efficiency gains in cryogenic shipping, from reusable shippers to reduced reliance on single-use cooling agents, can translate into meaningful environmental benefits.
What changes to sample packaging and shipping could make a difference?
KT: Optimized packaging, recyclable, or reusable components, and more deliberate shipment planning schedules are no longer niche endeavors but increasingly practical options for routine use. Testing samples near patients, either using point-of-care devices or local laboratories, can reduce environmental impact while improving efficiency and speed.
Effective shipment planning to reduce the frequency of replenishing temperature-control materials can also lower emissions while protecting sample integrity. Fewer transfers mean reduced risk of temperature excursions and fewer resources consumed in correcting avoidable failures.
What are the arguments for decentralized testing in clinical trials, from an environmental perspective?
GH: Historically, centralization was synonymous with quality, with samples sent to a single location to ensure consistency. Today, advances in standardization, quality systems, and digital oversight are enabling high-quality testing much closer to patients, which reduces transportation emissions.
Avoiding unnecessary global consolidation reduces the need for long-distance sample transport, which further reduces emissions and limits cryogenic shipping and related materials. At the same time, it expands access to clinical research by making participation more feasible in regions where it was previously constrained by logistics.
This evolution reinforces an important point: sustainability and quality are not competing priorities for trial sponsors, lab experts, and sites. With robust quality management systems and standardized methods in place, lab testing distributed across regional and local sites can support both high-integrity data and more responsible operations.
What does sample handling best practice look like, in sustainability terms?
GH: Once a sample arrives at the lab, sustainability becomes intertwined with workflow design. Automated processes, digital tracking, and data-driven quality controls reduce repeat testing, specimen loss, and manual rework – all sources of waste.
Cold storage is one of the most energy-intensive aspects of lab operations, from ultra-low-temperature freezers to cryogenic storage used throughout a sample’s lifecycle. Reducing unnecessary storage time prior or post-analysis helps limit both energy consumption and material use tied to daily sample handling.
While automation is often discussed in terms of speed and consistency, its environmental impact is equally important. Fewer failed runs mean fewer reagents consumed, fewer plastics discarded, and less energy expended per assay. These are efficiencies that compound quickly when scaled across thousands of samples.
At the same time, laboratories are paying closer attention to energy use across facilities and digital infrastructure, reflecting a broader shift toward data-informed sustainability. Monitoring consumption enables organizations to track trends and identify inefficiencies and opportunities to reduce the environmental impact of purchased electricity consumption.
How are waste handling practices evolving in clinical studies?
Dean McLean: Biohazardous and chemical waste are unavoidable in clinical lab activities, but how they are managed and how much is produced in the first place is evolving.
Dry ice, single-use plastics, and temperature-controlled packaging are often overlooked contributors to lab waste streams. Preventing sample loss or repeat testing reduces not only disposal volumes, but also the upstream resources required to re-ship, re-freeze, and re-analyze specimens.
Sustainable, safe, and efficient waste handling procedures have become a baseline expectation in modern labs. For example, expanded waste segregation programs have been established in global lab sites for IQVIA Laboratories, which enable more materials to be sorted into appropriate recycling streams. This initiative has reduced the volume of clinical waste sent to incineration by more than 40 percent since 2022. Additionally, in 2025, these sites collectively:
Reused 23 metric tons of dry ice.
Reduced cold-chain packaging emissions by 70 percent by replacing polystyrene with fully recyclable paper-based solutions.
Removed 36 metric tons of single-use plastic superfluous packaging from test kits.
How can labs shift the waste handling mindset from disposal to prevention?
Dean McLean: Waste prevention is more challenging, but increasingly important. Reducing unnecessary consumables, right-sizing kit components, and minimizing expired or unused materials should be priorities. Each avoidable query also represents material saved via fewer repeat shipments and redeployed temperature-controlled packages.
In this sense, improved intake quality has a direct and measurable effect on lab waste, not just operational efficiency. There are significant opportunities upstream at the study protocol design stage to embed principles of prevention and circularity that align with the waste hierarchy and further reduce environmental impact across the value chain.
How are sustainability principles being built into quality management?
DM: Perhaps the most overlooked aspect of sustainable lab practice is quality itself. Every failed assay and lost sample carries an environmental cost in addition to its scientific and ethical implications.
From this perspective, sustainability is not a parallel initiative. It is embedded in good lab science. Robust quality management systems and staff training ensure that samples complete their journey successfully the first time.
Each avoided freeze-thaw cycle, shipment reroute, or failed run represents a tangible sustainability gain — conserving energy, materials, and time.
In an era of increasingly complex trial designs, this alignment becomes even more critical. Clinical labs that prioritize both quality and sustainability are better positioned to support innovation at scale, as well as the needs and expectations of all stakeholders.
What will the clinical sample journey of the future look like?
KT: The journey of a sample will never be simple. Clinical research demands scientific rigor and patient safety above all else. But research and development is evolving, and expert lab teams must also evolve in how they understand their role within the broader research ecosystem.
Sustainable lab practices are not about sacrificing quality or slowing innovation. They are about designing systems that can support global science responsibly. Sustainability is embedded in the everyday decisions that shape how samples are collected, moved, analyzed, and stored.
When viewed through the lens of a sample’s journey, sustainability becomes tangible and actionable at every step.
Newsletters
Receive the latest pathologist news, personalities, education, and career development – weekly to your inbox.
