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Advancing science while reducing environmental impact
Data shows that labs often consume up to 10 times more energy than typical office spaces and generate 12 billion pounds of plastic waste annually—highlighting the urgency for more eco-friendly scientific research. At Agilent, we’re committed to advancing science while championing sustainability. As your reliable partner, we focus on optimizing lab efficiency, maximizing instrument longevity, and alleviating the end-of-life burden—empowering you to achieve your scientific goals while minimizing environmental impact.
Recognized by the World Economic Forum for our innovative Certified Pre-Owned Instruments program, Agilent uniquely offers end-to-end sustainable solutions for your lab instruments with circular economy principles—a regenerative approach to help conserve resources, reduce carbon footprint, and foster more environmental responsibility in science. Our programs and services embed four key strategies, known as the "four Rs", into your lab instrument’s life cycle to reduce resource consumption, support repair, encourage refurbishment, and, as a last resort, recycle.
The Agilent four Rs stand for reduce, repair, refurbish, and recycle.?
They represent both our own core strategies and ones we can help you implement to transform your instrument journey from what has historically been a linear economy model to one that is circular—diverting valuable materials away from landfill.?
By embracing these core principles, Agilent empowers you to extend the life of your instruments, minimize waste, and reduce your lab’s overall environmental impact.
The most effective path to sustainability begins with prevention—minimizing waste and conserving resources from the start. That’s why our strategies for reduce focus on the earliest stages of the instrument life cycle, supporting more sustainable manufacturing and laboratory operations. Our key strategies for reduce are:
Design
Our environmentally conscious innovations are sustainable by design and built to last. Upgrading old instrumentation to Agilent’s more efficient models can help you reduce resource consumption and overall cost of ownership, as well as optimize your lab’s operational efficiencies.
TESTEX—a globally operating Swiss textile-testing organization—has leveraged the intelligence of Agilent GC/MS solutions for 15 years to help them develop robust, sensitive, and sustainable methods for testing and certifying textiles.
Manufacturing
As a Transformative Level sponsor of My Green Lab and an early adopter of their ACT Ecolabel, Agilent is committed to ensuring the transparency of our instruments’ environmental impact. Our manufacturing process is also optimized for minimal waste and energy consumption.
First Lab
Our digital services and quantitative tools such as Agilent CrossLab Connect provide comprehensive visibility into lab asset utilization and instrument health to help you achieve your sustainability goals. With real-time analytics, you can make informed decisions to optimize lab operational efficiency—conserving resources, time, and money—while establishing a measurable sustainability baseline and identifying areas for improvement.
To take reduction even further, we support additional strategies such as: ?
- Relocating instruments from one lab or site to another instead of buying duplicates?
- Digitizing your lab processes where possible to cut down on physical resources?
- Considering renting an instrument for short-term needs rather than investing in new units.*?
- Learning additional lab waste reduction strategies through the free My Green Lab Ambassador program?
*The Agilent Instrument Rental Program is currently only available in some countries?
Scientific instruments are essential partners in discovery, and like any valued team member, they need care to perform their best. Repairing and maintaining instruments not only extends their useful life and prolongs performance but also reduces the environmental impact of premature replacement. Our key strategies for repair are:
Maintenance
We provide an extensive portfolio of Agilent CrossLab services to help you with regular preventive maintenance, remote diagnostics, and equipment repairs. Invaluable online resources such as Agilent University and Agilent Community also help strengthen operators' proficiency with their instruments—?increasing equipment uptime and longevity.
When instruments become retired, that doesn’t have to be the end. Our strategies for refurbish redirect these valuable systems away from landfill and into a second life, not only alleviating the burden of end-of-life disposal but also supporting other labs with high-quality yet cost-effective solutions. Our key strategies for refurbish are:
Trade-In and Buyback Program
The vertically integrated Agilent Trade-In and Buyback program offers you trade-in credit or cash for your retired Agilent and non-Agilent systems. Reverse logistics costs are covered, reusable packaging is deployed for returns when possible, and responsible lab equipment disposal is guaranteed—alleviating you of every aspect of your instrument’s end-of-life burden.
Orion—a global Finnish pharma company—are one of Agilent’s largest Trade-In and Buyback program customers, who partner with Agilent to support their mission of building wellbeing and improving sustainability.?
Refurbishment
Our Certified Pre-Owned Instruments are refurbished by Agilent engineers in our factories to pass original specifications. This comprehensive remanufacturing initiative includes over 200 products and comes with assurances like same-as-new specifications and a one-year manufacturer’s warranty.
Second Lab
The Agilent Certified Pre-Owned Instruments program makes high-quality technology accessible for price-sensitive customers, such as start-up companies and academic institutions. Our instruments are refurbished to extend their useful lifetime by 50% on average—?giving them a second life in a new lab.
Discover more about Agilent Certified Pre-Owned Lab Instruments
When instruments all eventually reach the end of their usable life, our strategies for recycle represent a last-resort effort to recover valuable materials for reuse, aiming to avoid landfill and reduce the demand for new manufacturing materials. Our key strategies for recycle are:
Parts Harvesting
As affirmed by the Agilent Value Promise, our instruments are known to be robust and remain operational for as long as 30 years. Agilent performs parts harvesting for lab equipment that is no longer salvageable—?enabling our engineers to repair older instruments and keep them running even after the end of guaranteed support.
Recycling
Considered a last resort, Agilent pays for scientific equipment recycling services to ensure that unsalvageable parts like plastics, main boards, and metals can be repurposed as raw materials—aiming to avoid landfill at all costs.
We also encourage recycling of instrument packaging, helping to reduce single-use waste and support a circular approach for the entirety of your products.
Ready to adopt reduce, reuse, and extend strategies in your lab?
Let us know if you have questions about our programs and services or would like to be contacted by an Agilent representative.
Simplified strategies for waste reduction in the lab
From a global lab manager’s survey, 85% of labs already have sustainability goals in place. Yet for many, figuring out where to start can be overwhelming. Explore the Agilent “four Rs”–a practical framework to implement tangible strategies to reduce your environmental impact from analytical instruments in the lab.
Reduce environmental impact with circularity principles in mind
The circular economy is a revolutionary concept that challenges the conventional linear model of resource management by promoting a regenerative system where resources are continually reused, recycled, and repurposed.?Learn about the Agilent programs and services that help reduce resource consumption and minimize waste in the lab using circular economy principles.
Join us in building a more sustainable future in science
At Agilent, sustainability is embedded in everything we do. From energy-efficient designs and waste-conscious manufacturing to industry-leading programs that promote reuse and recycling, we’re helping labs around the world reduce their environmental impact without compromising scientific excellence.
Whether you’re looking to upgrade to more efficient instrumentation, extend the life of your current equipment, or responsibly manage end-of-life disposal, Agilent offers practical and scalable solutions to meet your lab’s needs.
Need additional inspiration?
Global lab sustainability survey
Discover what 500 lab leaders around the world revealed about their top sustainability priorities to reduce their environmental footprint.
Discover howSustainability through lab optimization
Read about the impact of lab energy usage on the environment and how lab optimization through data intelligence tools play a key role in achieving sustainability goals in the lab.
Read howMy Green Lab Certification
See how Agilent’s Santa Clara lab achieved the highest “green” level in lab sustainability.
See howRelated products and services
Elevating lab efficiency with enhanced automation, connectivity, and sustainability capabilities.
Explore the entire product lifecycle, including the sourcing of materials, manufacturing, shipping, use, and disposal.
Agilent CrossLab Connect digital services leverage data-intelligence technologies to increase operational efficiency, contributing to a more sustainable lab.
Agilent CrossLab service plans provide labs with a variety of coverage options and operator training to extend instrument lifetime.
Lab Instrument Trade-In and Buyback
Agilent Trade-In and?Buyback Services offer cash or credit for your unused instruments and ensure environmentally responsible disposal.
Certified Pre-Owned Instruments
Agilent offers the most comprehensive portfolio of refurbished laboratory equipment on the market, giving thousands of instruments a second life each year.
Newsroom
- Agilent Announces My Green Lab Ecolabel 2.0 for the New Infinity III LC Series
- Agilent Ranks No. 10 on Newsweek’s List of America’s Most Responsible Companies
- Agilent ESG Report Highlights Expansion of Solutions to Help Labs Manage Their Environmental Footprint
- Agilent Receives Scientists' Choice Awards for Sustainability
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