Personal Note from Patrick, the Editor

Hi Reader, I am excited about today’s piece.

Honestly, I haven’t had Sartorius on my radar for greener lab solutions. But then I saw one of their brochures...

So, I reached out, and they provided me with deeper insight into their efforts as part of sponsoring this piece.

They innovated across a broad range of areas to help make laboratories more sustainable. I have to admit, I am impressed:

Number of the Day

A few years ago, Sartorius reported in one of their analyses that they had reduced production rejects by 60% at their manufacturing site in Aubagne, France. While this is an important and often overlooked metric, it also highlights how much has changed since then. Today, they have introduced innovations for nearly 20 product categories in their portfolio, featuring far more exciting and unique developments that I haven't heard about anywhere else.

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New Opportunities for Your Laboratory

Sartorius allows you to save, for example, 70% of plastic waste and 80% of water across their portfolio.

And some of these opportunities exist in places you wouldn’t expect at all - in balances, pipettes and tips, lab water systems and funnels.

Unfortunately, we cannot discuss all their innovations. However, let me go through those that stuck with me the most:

Cutting Plastic Waste with Tips

Sartorius wants to offer pipette tips that ensure precision and accurate results while enhancing the sustainability of your lab.

If you choose Flexibulk, you can save about 70% of tip box-related waste, easily translating to over 100 kg per year.

That is more than you eat in 3 months!

But for those who want to save time stacking tips, their refill options allow you to save 50% of waste.

And if you have to choose individually boxed tips, you still save about 30% with their Refill Single Pack.

And just a few days ago, they launched their Light Pack™️that comes with a 74% reduction in plastic content compared to traditional single-tray plastic tip racks.

PS: The transparent window is made of cellulose acetate, which means it contains no plastic and can be disposed of with paper waste.

Hidden Savings in Laboratory Balances

What excited me was that Sartorius had innovated around a really inconspicuous lab item: lab balances.

But what can you save there?

First, energy through deep standby. That's useful, as many users might not turn their balances off.

Another big point is the manufacturing. While renewable energy is not new, their facilities come with a 91% recycling rate (being on track for zero waste).

Finally, repair & recycling. They designed their new balances with replaceable and repairable parts, facilitating disassembly.

It matters to me so much because they have no real financial benefit from that, but it prevents the graveyards of old instruments (or the overuse of damaged items) we often see.

Filtration Made More Sustainable

The third innovation I thought would be valuable to highlight showcases Sartorius’ holistic thinking very well:

If you buy filtration units, you might have been annoyed by the waste you create through the single-use nature of them.

Sartorius redesigned: 30.5% less plastic than previous models.

Of course, that is still waste but they rethought the Vivaflow^® SU itself rather than focusing on related impacts such as packaging.

And by switching you save 80–90% of water compared with the previous model.

It's the internal design optimization that allows you to cut out a pre-washing and cleaning step.

And More?

Something else that is interesting: their Biosart^® funnels. What should you offer your customers if you produce a simple plastic item?

Their idea: showing you can reuse it (if necessary, after autoclaving).

Finally, please get ready to click, because Sartorius has more innovations in their portfolio to discover.

Applying the Knowledge

I wanted to create this piece because I think Sartorius serves as a great example of supporting sustainability for two reasons:

1) The holistic thinking.

We see innovations across several areas; manufacturing, logistics, product design, the use phase, and end-of-life considerations.

I had the feeling that, instead of doing the very least, this truly signals proper consideration of what can be improved.

2) The consideration of laboratory practices

None of their innovations make things more difficult or time-intensive.

They took the time to think things through and invested the time, money, and effort to innovate.

And in their brochures, they are informative and precise.
​Convince yourself here.

How We Feel Today

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See you again on the 2nd.

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Edited by Patrick Penndorf
Connection@ReAdvance.com
Lutherstraße 159, 07743, Jena, Thuringia, Germany
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