From Boston to the World: Boston Children’s Hospital Sustainability Work Earns Global Recognition

Boston Children’s Hospital has been shortlisted for two major international sustainability awards, recognizing years of work to make sustainability part of how we conduct research, operate our laboratories, and increasingly, how we work across the hospital.

Something pretty incredible is happening at Boston Children’s Hospital.

Over the past five years, sustainability within our research community has grown from a collection of ideas, pilot projects, and passionate people asking “Could we do this differently?” into something much bigger.

This summer, that work received recognition on the global stage.

Boston Children’s Hospital has been shortlisted for the World Sustainability Awards 2026 and named a finalist in the Reuters Events Global Sustainability Awards 2026 Business Transformation Award category for Protecting Science Through Sustainability: Transforming Research Operations Across Boston Children’s Hospital.

Two global shortlists. One Boston Children’s Hospital community behind them.

And while we're certainly excited about the awards, the story behind them matters even more.

It Started With a Different Way of Thinking About Sustainability

When the Boston Children’s Hospital Green Labs Program began, the goal wasn't simply to make laboratories “greener.”

The goal was to find practical ways to make research operations more sustainable while protecting and strengthening the science happening every day.

Could we operate ultra-low temperature freezers more efficiently while better protecting critical research samples?

Could we reduce unnecessary energy consumption from fume hoods?

Could laboratory plastics that traditionally became waste become part of a circular economy?

Could materials still holding value be reused rather than discarded?

Could we give researchers and laboratory managers the tools to identify sustainability opportunities themselves?

And perhaps most importantly:

Could sustainability become part of how we work rather than something extra we're asked to do?

Those questions became pilots.

Pilots became programs.

And programs began changing culture.

Pilot. Prove. Scale.

That progression has become an important part of how the Boston Children’s Hospital Green Labs team approaches change:

Pilot. Prove. Scale.

Start small. Work with the people closest to the problem. Learn what works—and what doesn't. Measure the results. Improve the process. Then determine whether an idea can grow.

That approach has helped sustainability initiatives move from individual laboratories into programs reaching research spaces across Boston Children’s Hospital.

Today, the impact can be seen in laboratories participating in the International Freezer Challenge, where Boston Children’s Hospital has earned international recognition for multiple consecutive years.

It can be seen in thousands of pounds of laboratory plastics being diverted from traditional waste streams and in efforts to bring recycled material back into laboratory purchasing.

It can be seen in expanded recycling and reuse programs for materials such as expanded polystyrene and shipping ice packs.

It can be seen when researchers close their fume hood sashes, maintain freezers more efficiently, participate in the Boston Children’s Hospital Green Labs Certification Program, or simply stop and ask whether there might be a better way to do something.

And increasingly, it can be seen beyond research.

Clinical teams and employees across Boston Children’s Hospital are developing sustainability initiatives of their own, demonstrating that ideas tested in one corner of the organization can inspire action somewhere completely different.

The People Behind the Progress

Programs don't create change.

People do.

The recognition Boston Children’s Hospital is receiving belongs to a community of people who have contributed their time, expertise, ideas, persistence, and enthusiasm to making sustainability part of how we work.

Among those people, Anne Ellett's leadership has been particularly impactful.

As a laboratory manager and longtime champion of the Boston Children’s Hospital Green Labs Program, Anne represents exactly the kind of leadership that makes lasting culture change possible. She has done far more than participate in sustainability initiatives—she has helped lead them, advocate for them, engage others in them, and demonstrate what sustainability can look like when it is embedded into the everyday operations of a working research laboratory.

Anne's influence extends beyond any individual project. She has consistently been willing to test new ideas, provide candid feedback, work through operational challenges, and bring others along with her. Perhaps most importantly, she has helped demonstrate that laboratory sustainability does not require choosing between environmental responsibility and scientific excellence. Done well, the two can strengthen one another.

That kind of leadership has been essential to the growth of Green Labs.

A central program can develop initiatives, build partnerships, collect data, and provide resources—but lasting change happens when respected leaders within the research community make those ideas their own.

Anne has been one of those leaders.

Her credibility, enthusiasm, and willingness to step forward have helped move sustainability from something being introduced to laboratories into something being led from within them.

And Anne is part of a remarkable group of people who have helped build this work.

Darina Mota, Haley Ohlson, and Marly Thomas have each played significant roles at different points in this journey—helping turn ideas into action, navigate operational challenges, build participation, and expand what the Boston Children’s Hospital Green Labs Program could accomplish.

Alongside them, the broader Boston Children’s Hospital Green Labs team—including Henri Lemos Brito, Sebastian, Denise, Yuu, Isa, Riley, Tracey, Emily, and Stephanie—has helped carry this work forward.

They have taken on projects, engaged laboratories, developed new ideas, solved problems, communicated progress, supported pilots, and helped turn successful experiments into sustainable programs.

Some have led major initiatives. Others have done the less-visible work that makes those initiatives possible. Some have been part of the journey for years, while others have joined more recently and brought new energy and perspectives.

Every one of those contributions matters.

Because the strength of the Boston Children’s Hospital Green Labs Program has never been one initiative—or one person.

It is a community of people willing to lead where they are.

And the Team Is Bigger Than Green Labs

Even the Green Labs team represents only part of this story.

Our Green Champions and laboratory managers have translated sustainability ideas into action within their own spaces.

Researchers have been willing to reconsider practices that may have existed for years.

Partners across Research Operations, Environmental Health and Safety, Facilities, Procurement, Environmental Services, Sustainability, and other departments have helped navigate the complicated realities of implementing change within one of the world's leading pediatric research institutions.

Our external partners have been willing to experiment with us, develop new solutions, and help us think differently about materials, equipment, energy, and waste.

Hospital leaders have given people the space to experiment.

And increasingly, our clinical colleagues are taking that same philosophy and making it their own—identifying opportunities and developing sustainability initiatives within clinical environments.

That's how culture changes.

Not because one department owns sustainability, but because eventually nobody needs permission to participate in it.