Gilson Connect
Many organizations in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sector are steering their operations toward sustainability. The intensive use of resources and significant waste generation by such businesses is driving the search for environmentally friendly ways of working — labs, in particular, are striving to improve, as they consume an astonishing 10 times more energy and four times more water than a typical office.
Adding to their environmental impact, labs must deal with a plethora of chemical waste — a byproduct of their everyday operations. The purchase and disposal of chemicals represent not just a hefty financial burden, but also a substantial environmental impact. Chemicals can contaminate water supplies, affect air quality, and harm local ecosystems, making their management a critical aspect of lab sustainability.
It is becoming increasingly clear that enhancing sustainability in the lab is not just about meeting regulatory requirements — it's a necessity to reduce environmental damage. Labs themselves can adopt sustainable processes by implementing more efficient and productive workflows.
In this article, we delve deeper into the issue of chemical waste in labs and identify key areas where labs can significantly improve their sustainability.
When discussing sustainability in labs, it's impossible to ignore the topic of chemical waste. Broadly defined, chemical waste encompasses the unavoidable residues and leftovers from lab processes and the unnecessary consumption of reagents, solvents, and buffers, often due to unoptimized procedures. Additionally, excess chemicals that degrade or expire because they are stored improperly or purchased in unnecessarily large quantities can also contribute to chemical waste. Reducing chemical waste provides numerous benefits:
The necessity of minimizing chemical waste is not a novel concept. Back in 1998, the 12 Principles of Green Chemistry was published — a set of guidelines developed to spur scientists towards more environmentally friendly chemical processes and products. The principles advocate for waste prevention, sustainable chemistry, and design for degradation, among other environmentally responsible practices.
Applying the principles of green chemistry can have a transformative effect on labs. By considering and implementing measures to reduce environmental impact, labs can significantly curb their production of chemical waste for more sustainable and safer working environments.
Sustainability in labs involves a multitude of considerations, from turning off lights and equipment when not in use to minimizing water consumption. The impact of such measures accumulates over time, leading to significant energy savings and a reduced environmental impact.
In the quest for improved sustainability, however, it's essential to delve deeper and explore less discussed — yet equally crucial — areas that can offer tangible improvements. We examine five of these areas below: supplier selection, product lifespan, instrument choice, and care, digitization, and automation.
An any lab, the sheer diversity of instruments and consumables can make supplier selection a critical element of overall sustainability based on their design choices, environmental compliance practices, and sourcing strategies. Sustainability-minded suppliers drive change by designing greener products that use less energy, produce less waste, or are made from recycled or easily recyclable materials. They will also adhere to stringent environmental standards to minimize pollution and waste during manufacturing and ensure responsible sourcing of raw materials, mitigating the environmental impact of their supply chains.
When choosing suppliers, labs can prioritize those that share their commitment to sustainability, meaning labs not only lessen their direct environmental impact but also influence the broader supply chain to adopt greener practices. To make it easier to identify a sustainable supplier, companies and organizations exist to evaluate and rate the sustainability practices of suppliers. EcoVadis, for instance, grants sustainability awards that signify a company's dedication to environmentally friendly processes along with social and human rights, ethics, and responsible purchasing. A testament to this approach is the recent recognition of two Gilson manufacturing sites in France that were awarded EcoVadis medals for their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices, underscoring their dedication to sustainability.
Labs can also consider how much plastic packaging your products, such as pipette tips, come with. Gilson, for example, offers refill options or packaging that use less plastic, including reload packs, blister refills, and tower packs that do not impact analysis and have the same characteristics (sterilization, etc.).
Sustainability has been integral to Gilson’s objectives for the past 75 years. The company’s conscientious product design and manufacturing is part of its commitment to evaluating and improving its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) process. The EcoVadis medals are a significant accomplishment for Gilson.
Learn MoreWhile some lab plastics are necessary for maintaining experimental integrity, like single-use pipette tips to avoid contamination, not all lab plastic has to follow this one-and-done approach. Other products in labs can often be sterilized and reused, depending on the durability and longevity of the materials used in their construction. However, you should always refer to manufacturer recommendations.
Unfortunately, the focus on durability is often overlooked. Products, therefore, require replacement more often, which not only incurs higher financial costs but also leads to more significant waste, adding to the environmental burden.
To improve their sustainability and reduce waste, labs can prioritize durable products with extended lifespans, which reduces the frequency of replacement and keeps items out of landfills for longer. Initiatives such as trade-in programs can also be a significant boost. Gilson offers a trade-in program for broken pipettes – no matter the brand, for example, refurbishing them for reuse and giving them back to communities with less access to scientific tools. Customers trading in broken pipettes receive discounts on their new purchases as an incentive to recycle.
Additionally, while plastic is prevalent in labs, it's not always the only option. Autoclavable glass products can be a sustainable alternative in many instances, enabling sterilization and reuse while reducing the need for disposable plastic.
Similar to your products, the choice of instruments in your lab significantly influences its sustainability. In fact, lab instruments have direct implications for experiment efficiency and resource consumption.
Instrument efficiency plays a crucial role in sample cleanup and purification workflows. Notably, less efficient instruments often consume higher quantities of solvents, buffers, and other reagents. For instance, to achieve a high product purity, a lower-grade column will need to extend the run-time and increase solvent use, contributing to higher energy consumption and more waste. Lower product recovery rates can also lead to more frequent experiment repetition, thereby escalating the use of consumables and energy.
Just as critical as the choice of instruments is their care and maintenance. Neglecting to clean or maintain instruments can risk experiment contamination, leading to re-runs and wastage. Furthermore, poorly maintained tools tend to have shorter lifespans, causing delays in experiments and costing more in the long run due to frequent repairs or replacements.
Investing in high-quality, durable instruments and ensuring regular maintenance is a win-win solution for labs aiming for sustainability. Quality instruments last longer, reducing the frequency of replacements, and perform better, leading to more efficient experiments and less waste.
While many individual actions contribute to lab sustainability, addressing one widespread source of inefficiency can have far-reaching effects — the lack of connectivity caused by analog processes. In many labs, data is still recorded on paper, requiring manual transfer and collation in different locations. Paper-based processes have multiple drawbacks, such as they:
Failing to digitize your processes where possible can prevent your workflows from being optimized. The subsequently longer experiments equate to higher energy consumption from equipment and lab space, adding to your lab's carbon footprint.
Nowadays, many solutions exist to improve the ease of digital data collection and streamline workflows, even for traditionally manual processes such as liquid handling. The key is to explore areas where digitization can be introduced in your lab. For instance, technologies like TRACKMAN® Connected reduce experimental re-runs by guiding you through your manual pipetting processes, ensuring improved traceability, optimizing your workflows, and creating reproducibility in your experiments. It also includes software that will notify you when the system needs maintenance, or your pipettes are due for calibration.
Figure 1. TRACKMAN Connected Pipetting System.
In lab experiments, the phrase "quality over quantity" resonates deeply, especially when considering sustainability. Namely, the quality of your research outcomes can directly impact the environmental footprint of your lab. Unsuccessful experiments — or those that don’t give you the desired results — may require re-runs, leading to excessive consumption of consumables and equipment.
Manual processes, a significant part of many lab operations, often contribute to experiment inefficiencies. They are prone to operator error, increasing the likelihood of needing to repeat experiments. Moreover, manual procedures can lead to inconsistencies in results due to inter-operator differences, thereby demanding further experiments for confirmation.
A practical solution to mitigate this issue lies in automation. Implementing automated instruments leads to more robust protocols and standardized procedures, significantly reducing errors and improving consistency. Labs can therefore minimize the need for experiment re-runs, reducing waste generation and energy consumption.
It is more important than ever that labs do their part in reducing their environmental impact to support the ongoing global focus on environmental conservation. Abundant opportunities to optimize the sustainability of lab processes exist. Any movements toward progress will help us to have a smaller ecological footprint, reduce expenses, and improve productivity and workflow efficiency.
Every step taken to enhance sustainability, no matter how small it may seem, is a responsible move and a step in the right direction to ensure that we protect and preserve our environment for future generations. Whether it’s refining supplier selection, improving experiment efficiency, extending product lifespan, choosing and maintaining instruments wisely, or embracing digitization and automation, every initiative counts.
Learn more about the steps Gilson takes to improve CSR through more sustainable processes.
