ACT Label (ACT Ecolabel)

The ACT Label (also called the ACT Ecolabel) is a product-level sustainability rating for laboratory equipment and consumables, developed and administered by My Green Lab, the nonprofit behind the widely used My Green Lab laboratory certification program. A product carries a genuine ACT Label when its manufacturer has submitted lifecycle-impact data to My Green Lab’s ACT database and that data has been independently validated by Verico, My Green Lab’s third-party verification partner — a self-reported ‘sustainable’ or ‘eco-friendly’ claim on a spec sheet or marketing page, with no corresponding database listing, is not the same thing.

Each rated product receives a weighted score out of 100 points, presented with color-coded category breakdowns rather than a single pass/fail badge. The scoring covers several dimensions of a product’s environmental footprint: energy use, materials and packaging, chemical hazards, and end-of-life/disposal options, alongside company-level factors such as greenhouse-gas (CO2e) reduction commitments and manufacturing-facility practices. Because the scorecard is comparative and dimension-by-dimension rather than a single certification threshold, two ACT-rated products in the same category can carry meaningfully different scores, and procurement staff are meant to read the breakdown, not just the headline number.

As of My Green Lab’s own published figures, the ACT database covers thousands of certified products across 80+ participating manufacturers, searchable directly on My Green Lab’s site. Participation is voluntary on the manufacturer’s part, and use of the label in purchasing decisions is voluntary on the buyer’s part — though it is increasingly referenced in institutional green-procurement policies and lab sustainability programs, including guidance from NIH-affiliated green-labs initiatives.

Not the same as ‘ACT’ in clinical-trial regulation

Readers coming from research-administration or clinical-trial contexts should note this is an unrelated use of the same three-letter initialism: in FDAAA 801 and ClinicalTrials.gov reporting, ‘ACT’ means applicable clinical trial, a defined category of drug/device trial subject to mandatory registration and results reporting. The ACT Label covered here is a laboratory-products sustainability rating from My Green Lab and has no connection to that regulatory term beyond sharing an acronym.

How it differs from lab-level certification

The ACT Label rates individual products (a specific pipette, freezer, or reagent kit); it is a different instrument from My Green Lab’s Bronze-through-Green laboratory certification, which rates an entire lab’s operational practices via staff survey and operational data. A lab can be My Green Lab-certified while purchasing few or no ACT-labeled products, and a manufacturer’s product can carry a strong ACT score independent of whether the purchasing lab itself is certified. The two programs are complementary, not the same rating applied at different scales.

Worked examples

• Reading a scorecard during procurement. A lab manager comparing two brands of centrifuge tubes checks each product’s ACT listing rather than relying on a manufacturer’s own marketing claim, comparing the packaging and end-of-life sub-scores specifically because the lab’s sustainability policy prioritizes reducing single-use plastic waste.
• Citing ACT coverage in a sustainability report. A core facility documents, for its institution’s annual sustainability report, the share of newly purchased consumables that carry a verified ACT Label, using that as one procurement-level metric alongside energy and water use.

Counter-example

A product page that displays a green-leaf icon or the phrase ‘sustainably made’ without a corresponding entry in My Green Lab’s ACT database is not carrying a verified ACT Label — it is an unverified marketing claim. The distinguishing test is whether the specific product (not just the manufacturer generally) appears in My Green Lab’s searchable ACT database with a Verico-validated score.

Related terms

• My Green Lab — the nonprofit that administers the ACT Label and the separate lab-level certification program.
• Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council (SPLC) — a related sustainable-procurement framework.
• Lab equipment lifecycle assessment — the broader practice the ACT scorecard’s category breakdown feeds into.