Sustainable Product Innovation
Our work to solve some of the world’s most complex scientific challenges focuses on collaborating with our customers to innovate smart solutions for a sustainable future. This collaborative approach also drives how we support our customers in achieving their sustainability goals.
Smart solutions for a sustainable future
Our customers seek innovative solutions to streamline biopharma production while ensuring the highest quality, safety and reliability within their workflows. With our expertise in biopharma production and research and development, two of our new product introductions in 2022 specifically optimize biopharma production and reduce its impact on waste and the environment. First, the J.T.Baker® Direct Dispense packaging system and Hydration solution platform addresses the challenge of efficiently producing biologics while eliminating waste. Unique as an offering, these products provide customers with precise, ready-to-use amounts of either raw materials or solution required in the earliest stages of biopharma production. By offering ready-to-use products and services, we eliminate many of the traditional early steps in the biopharma preparation process, effectively reducing raw materials required.
Second, Avantor R&D scientists developed a biodegradable solution used in cell lysis to replace a chemical recently found to be toxic to aquatic organisms when entering environment through waste streams. Our new J.T. Baker® Cell Lysis Solution and J.T. Baker® Viral Inactivation Solution are biodegradable and exhibit low ecotoxicity. Both products are easily cleared from drug substance during downstream process and offer product performance comparable to industry standards. Development of these products is an example of our investment in innovations that support a more sustainable future with smart solutions.
Supporting the sustainable lab movement
Avantor continues to support the sustainable lab movement with our sponsorship of My Green Lab®, a non-profit organization recognized as a leader for laboratory sustainability best practices around the world. Avantor Services onsite laboratory team members, certified as My Green Lab Ambassadors, contributed to this progress by supporting a customer in their goal of achieving My Green Lab certification, advancing sustainable lab practices in four areas over a 12-month period:
- Waste Reduction and Recycling: After attending waste map training, our My Green Lab-accredited team members identified opportunities to improve waste reduction and recycling
- Electrical Plug Load: Introduced a traffic light system which enabled easy identification of individual equipment that could be switched off after use, thus reducing energy consumption
- Cold Storage: Completed the 2022 My Green Lab Freezer Challenge – saving 97kWh/day, equal to three homes worth of energy per year
- Infrastructure and Energy: Worked with facility managers to provide knowledge to lab users of how their activities impacted infrastructure and energy
Avantor Services are applying learnings from this project to help this and other customers implement more sustainable changes in the lab.