Tucker's Quest Diagnostics Wins Green Business Award

We have an Award-winning company in our midst!

The Southeast Business Unit of Quest Diagnostics Inc. based in Tucker, was honored last month by winning Keep DeKalb Beautiful’s “Green Business Award.”

Quest Diagnostics is a leading provider of diagnostic testing information for cancer, gene-based testing, and drug of abuse testing. According to Newsweek Magazine’s 2011 Green Ranking system, Quest Diagnostics is now #118 on the U.S. 500 Green Company Score List, up 240 spots from last year’s ranking. The Tucker location has also been awarded “Top Workplaces” recognition by the Atlanta Journal Constitution this year.

With over 600 employees at the facility, Quest’s “Green Team” and local staff work hard to make a difference with pro-health and environmental initiatives in and around town. Staff members come together on their time off to conduct quarterly Adopt-a-Road cleanups in the woods and street near their 270,000 sq ft. facility off Montreal Circle. The company’s “Green Team” initiative formed about three years ago and offers employees extensive recycling options.

"As a company we are trying to reduce our carbon footprint, and as the ‘Green Team’ we are challenged to come up with ideas to assist in that goal,” said Susan Tvarozna, Director of Quality Assurance and Environmental Health and Safety.

One creative idea they came up with was to hang bathroom signs reminding staff to use only one paper towel sheet. As Tvarozna put it, “we’re trying to change our culture one paper towel at a time.”

The Green Team staff also writes a quarterly electronic newsletter called “HEAT” - Healthy Environmental Action Tips - which offers employees helpful hints on how to live green at work and at home.

One of their most successful green programs is the recycling of #2 plastic containers used in the laboratories. Quality Assurance Department Manager and Green Team Leader Cindy Hurst said they started the plastic initiative by first recycling staff drinking bottles from the break room, but now they recycle all laboratory plastic that can safely be recycled.

“We are now recycling 200 pounds of plastic a week…through DeKalb County’s recycling program,” Hurst explained.

Another big initiative the Green Team organized is the refurbishing of centrifuges. When blood is drawn to be tested, a centrifuge is used to separate serum from whole blood. They’ve set up a system to have broken centrifuges sent to the Tucker facility and “we take parts of one to fix another, and we refurbish them. It gives the centrifuge a second life,” said Tvarozna. This initiative keeps about 500 centrifuges out of local landfills annually, and has rendered the company significant savings on new devices.

Tucker is lucky to have these green believers in our community. They never stop thinking up new ways to go green and are hopeful to start an ice pack recycling initiative early next year.

Congratulations Quest Diagnostics on a green job well done!