September 2024—The barriers to using sustainable practices in a clinical laboratory are legion: too much work and too little time, space, infrastructure, awareness, and education. And the waste streams for biohazardous and chemical hazardous material are complex. It’s therefore challenging to advise how to get a sustainability program going, which is why Joe Wiencek, PhD, D(ABCC), says, “Starting somewhere, anywhere, is half the battle.” When the European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine issued its guidelines in 2022 for green and sustainable medical labs, its focus was on chemicals, energy, waste, and water. Waste has been the focus of research in the clinical labs at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where Dr. Wiencek is service line medical director of the core laboratory, medical director of clinical chemistry, and associate professor of pathology, microbiology, and immunology.