Guidance for the Sustainable Procurement of Laboratory Supplies

Laboratories often represent an issue area within organizations for environmental waste, toxins, and even supply chain labor issues. Until now, comprehensive guidance wasn’t available for purchasers seeking to address these issues. That’s why the SPLC convened a multi-stakeholder Action Team to develop prioritized strategies and align them with supporting tools and resources for those seeking to take action in this area.

In this webinar, participants will learn more about the environmental and social impacts of purchasing laboratory supplies such as equipment, consumables, and chemicals; and get an update on Multnomah County's progress towards implementing SPLC's Sustainable Lab Guidance to address its impacts. 

Meet our Speakers

Star Scott is the Green Labs Program Manager at the University of Georgia. She has a background in conservation-driven research including ecology, wildlife biology, & endangered species genomics, and is a deep believer in the interconnectivity of all living things.  Star is dedicated to making the research enterprise more sustainable & more equitable and is currently focused on resource conservation, landfill diversion, creating and promoting equitable systems, environmental and social justice, sustainable procurement & building stronger teams through meaningful communication and psychological safety.  She serves on the national board for the International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories, is a founding vice president of the Georgia chapter of the International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories and is a Higher Education Associations Sustainability Consortium fellow and liaison on behalf of the Campus Safety, Health and Environmental Management Association.

Shawn Postera is the Sustainable Purchasing Coordinator, Multnomah County, Oregon.  Shawn is committed to creating tools that are practical guides that initiate systemic change to rewire our supply chain for positive impacts on our capitalistic ways with shared sustainability values. She assists stakeholders through intentional and thoughtful processes that access organizational readiness, describe current directions and strategies, identify inequities and injustices, all the while help to reflect upon and understand strengths, challenges, and ways to eliminate injustices and celebrate successes and lessons learned for continual improvement.