Well, That Didn't Go as Planned...Why Failure Isn't Waste: Lessons in Resilience from the Boston Children's Hospital Green Labs Program
By Charles Blanchette, Manager, Research Facilities and BCH Green Labs Program Leader
When we think about sustainability, we often think about reducing waste. Recycling plastics. Conserving energy. Reusing materials. Finding ways to do more with less.
But after five years of building sustainability initiatives at Boston Children's Hospital, we've learned something important:
Waste isn't always something you can see in a trash can. And failure isn't always the opposite of success.
Sometimes waste looks like unnecessary energy consumption. Sometimes it's equipment that could have lasted longer. Sometimes it's valuable resources being discarded because we haven't developed a better alternative.
And sometimes, the greatest waste of all is failing to learn from something that didn't go according to plan.
Our Green Labs journey has been filled with successes, but it has also included setbacks, funding challenges, unexpected obstacles, and more than a few moments when we've asked ourselves, “Well, now what?”
Those experiences have shaped not only our programs, but also how we approach sustainability across the institution.
It Started With One Question: WHY?
When the BCH Green Labs Program began in 2021, our approach was relatively simple.
We started asking WHY.
Why are we doing things the way we've always done them? Why are we throwing away materials that might have another purpose? Why are we consuming energy unnecessarily? And why can't we find a better way?
Of course, asking questions is considerably easier than changing established practices, particularly in a complex research hospital where protecting science and patient care must always come first.
We recognized early that sustainability couldn't simply mean telling researchers to change their behaviors. We needed to provide education, demonstrate value, and make sustainable practices practical and accessible.
That led to our HEDGE framework:
Highlight opportunities for improvement.
Educate people about why they matter.
Demonstrate what is possible.
Guide participants through implementation.
Enable people to make lasting changes.
It sounded like a pretty good plan.
There was just one small problem.
We didn't always have the funding, infrastructure, or resources to enable the changes we were encouraging.
And nowhere was that more apparent than in our efforts to recycle laboratory plastics.
We Had a Plan. We Just Forgot the Money.
Laboratories generate significant amounts of plastic waste, from media bottles and packaging to other single-use materials.
We saw an opportunity to divert appropriate, nonhazardous materials from the waste stream and give them another life.
The concept seemed straightforward.
Find a recycling partner. Educate researchers. Collect plastics. Keep materials out of landfills and incinerators.
Simple, right?
Not quite.
We quickly discovered that recycling in a research environment comes with unique challenges. Materials must be properly segregated. Contamination must be prevented. Collection and storage must be coordinated. Vendors must be identified.
And, of course, somebody has to pay for it.
In September 2024, with the help of a small grant and our partnership with Polycarbin, we launched a laboratory plastics recycling pilot involving approximately 20 laboratories.
It wasn't an institution-wide program. It wasn't backed by an unlimited budget. And there was no guarantee it would continue.
But it gave us something incredibly valuable: an opportunity to test the idea.
During the pilot, we diverted approximately 1,658 pounds of laboratory plastics from the waste stream.
More importantly, we demonstrated that researchers were willing to participate when provided with the appropriate tools and education.
Our first lesson: Sometimes the failure isn't in the idea. It's in the system that doesn't yet exist to support it.
The funding challenge hadn't disappeared, but we had learned enough to take the next step.
Freezer Burn: When Waste Isn't in the Trash
While we were navigating the challenges of recycling, another sustainability initiative was teaching us a different lesson.
Not all waste is something you throw away.
Sometimes it's sitting in a laboratory, plugged into the wall, running 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
We're talking about laboratory freezers.
At Boston Children's, hundreds of cold storage units protect valuable research materials. Their reliability is essential to maintaining scientific integrity and preventing potentially devastating sample losses.
Initially, much of our freezer sustainability work focused on energy conservation.
Through the International Freezer Challenge, we encouraged laboratories to improve maintenance practices, manage sample inventories, reduce unnecessary storage, and evaluate opportunities to operate equipment more efficiently.
But as the program evolved, so did our understanding of its value.
Poor freezer maintenance doesn't simply waste energy. It can contribute to equipment failures, unnecessary repair costs, premature replacement, and risks to valuable research.
Likewise, maintaining samples that are no longer needed consumes storage capacity, energy, and resources that could be better utilized elsewhere.
We began recognizing that sustainability wasn't simply about saving electricity.
It was about protecting science.
Participation in the International Freezer Challenge grew from eight BCH laboratories in 2022 to 53 in 2025.
In 2025 alone, participating laboratories documented approximately 1,781 kilowatt-hours in daily energy savings, representing an estimated 650,000 kilowatt-hours annually and approximately $155,600 in annual utility cost avoidance.
Boston Children's has now earned recognition as the Top Clinical Organization for five consecutive years, from 2022 through 2026.
We're incredibly proud of that accomplishment.
But the most meaningful outcome isn't the recognition.
It's the growing understanding that responsible cold storage practices can improve energy efficiency, extend equipment life, reduce operational risks, and help protect the science inside those freezers.
Our second lesson: Sometimes the problem isn't that your solution failed. It's that your original understanding of the problem was too narrow.
Be Careful What You Wish For. It Might Actually Work.
Back in our recycling program, something unexpected happened.
People liked it.
Researchers participated. Materials were being collected. Laboratories wanted to join.
And suddenly, the challenge wasn't convincing people to recycle.
It was figuring out how to support everyone who wanted to participate.
Our original pilot had been designed to demonstrate feasibility, not to support an expanding institution-wide recycling operation.
Growth introduced new challenges involving collection logistics, staffing, storage, transportation, education, and long-term funding.
The very success we had worked to achieve was exposing limitations in our original approach.
Through continued partnerships, creative problem-solving, and additional support, we expanded laboratory plastics recycling across more than 37 research floors in August 2025.
By July 2026, approximately 15,000 pounds of laboratory plastics had been diverted through the program.
But that growth reinforced another important realization.
A successful pilot isn't necessarily a sustainable program.
The model that works for 20 laboratories may not work for 200.
Eventually, programs need consistent resources, defined responsibilities, and institutional support to continue growing.
Our third lesson: Sometimes success creates the next challenge. And resilience means being willing to change the model that originally worked.
Wait... Now Everyone Wants to Recycle Something?
As our laboratory plastics program expanded, something even more exciting began happening.
People started bringing us their own ideas.
What about the Styrofoam arriving in laboratory shipments?
What about the hundreds of ice packs accompanying temperature-sensitive deliveries?
What about surgical blue wrap, gloves, and other materials used in clinical environments?
Suddenly, the conversation was no longer limited to laboratory plastics.
It was spreading throughout the institution.
Through partnerships and creative reuse opportunities, we began finding alternative destinations for materials that traditionally entered the waste stream.
Between September 2025 and September 2026, approximately 11,800 pounds of ice packs found a second life through partnerships with two local cheese farms.
We also introduced expanded polystyrene collection and explored new recycling opportunities with clinical colleagues, including surgical blue wrap and other appropriate materials.
Not every idea has been immediately feasible.
Some materials present contamination challenges. Others lack viable recycling markets. Some solutions are simply too expensive or logistically difficult to implement at scale.
But we've learned that an idea that cannot work today isn't necessarily an idea that will never work.
Sometimes it needs a different partner, a different process, or simply better timing.
And perhaps the most exciting development is that these ideas are no longer coming exclusively from the Green Labs team.
Staff across research, clinical, and administrative departments are identifying opportunities and asking how they can contribute.
Our fourth lesson: The greatest success of a sustainability program may be when others begin creating change without waiting for you to lead it.
Apparently, We Can't Fund Everything Forever.
There's a challenge that comes with being resourceful.
When you're consistently able to make things happen with limited resources, people can begin assuming that limited resources are all you need.
For years, much of our sustainability progress has been driven by dedicated volunteers, creative partnerships, grant opportunities, and people willing to contribute time and energy beyond their normal responsibilities.
That commitment has been extraordinary.
But we've also learned an important distinction.
Just because a program can survive through determination doesn't mean it has become sustainable.
Long-term success requires more than enthusiasm.
It requires funding, infrastructure, clear accountability, leadership engagement, and integration into institutional operations.
Today, we're continuing to work toward transitioning successful initiatives from individually driven projects into programs supported through broader institutional ownership.
Our Environmental Sustainability Employee-Led Group, EARTH, is another important part of that evolution, connecting colleagues across research, clinical, and administrative functions to share ideas, build partnerships, and support meaningful change.
The goal isn't for one person or one team to become indispensable.
The goal is to create systems and a culture that allow sustainable practices to continue regardless of who happens to be leading them.
Our fifth lesson: Passion starts programs. Infrastructure sustains them.
The Only Thing We Couldn't Afford to Waste Was the Lesson.
Looking back at our journey since 2021, there's a great deal to celebrate.
We've expanded recycling opportunities, improved cold storage practices, diverted thousands of pounds of material, reduced energy consumption, and earned recognition for the dedication of our researchers, staff, and sustainability partners.
But behind those accomplishments are the challenges that helped shape them.
A plastics recycling pilot that almost didn't happen.
A successful program that grew faster than its funding model.
Freezer initiatives that taught us to think beyond energy conservation.
New recycling ideas that required us to reconsider what was possible.
And the ongoing realization that long-term sustainability requires institutional ownership, not just individual determination.
None of these experiences offered a perfect roadmap.
But each taught us something valuable.
Our approach continues to be rooted in a simple philosophy:
Pilot. Fail. Learn. Adapt. Prove. Scale.
Not every pilot will succeed. Not every idea will be feasible. And not every obstacle can be overcome immediately.
But when we approach setbacks with curiosity rather than discouragement, we create opportunities to improve.
Perhaps the most meaningful sign of progress is that people throughout Boston Children's are now asking the same question that helped launch Green Labs five years ago:
WHY?
Why are we doing things this way? Why are we wasting this resource? Why can't we find a better solution?
Those questions represent something bigger than any individual recycling program or energy-saving initiative.
They represent a changing culture.
And ultimately, that's what sustainability is about.
Not simply reducing what we throw away, but rethinking how we work, how we use resources, and how we support one another in creating lasting change.
Failure isn't the opposite of success. Sometimes it's how we get there.
And failure isn't waste...
Unless we throw away the lesson.
Protecting Science Through Sustainability: Smarter Operations. Stronger Research. Lasting Impact.
Boston Children's Hospital Green Labs Program