Hi Reader, today I have exciting innovations for you!
During my Bachelor’s, when I started to become interested in sustainability, I wondered:
Why aren’t companies helping scientists to be more sustainable?
As I found out a few Google searches later — they do.
And today, we will take a closer look at some of these examples from Corning Life Sciences - including free samples for you!
Why? As you know, Corning Life Sciences are sponsors of our summit and communications this year, so I was able to get a look behind the scenes for you:
Today's Lesson: Innovations That Save Plastic
How smart design makes our labs more sustainable
Number Of The Day
Based on a publication by De Paepe et al., purchasing and the associated Scope 3 emissions are the largest contributor to the carbon footprint of laboratories. They found that the average scientist generates 370g of CO₂e for every euro spent on consumables. Overall, this adds up to 6.2 tons of CO₂e per person per year. Now, imagine being able to cut that number by 23–70%... Yes - what you buy can make a huge difference.
370
Teaching Sustainability Effectively
The way to a greener future partially leads through different procurement choices—i.e., rethinking what you buy.
The ACT Ecolabel database is a valuable resource for finding footprint data on lab items, instruments, and chemicals. However, it's important to note that a labeled product is not necessarily sustainable—the ACT Ecolabel indicates the extent of its environmental impacts.
The reason this matters is Scope 3 emissions - meaning all emissions related to the creation, shipping, and end-of-life treatment of your items.
How to Make Change
In science, Scope 3 emissions often make up the biggest chunk of emissions.
Until recently, there were few alternatives to common single-use items in the lab—the main differentiator was price.
However, companies like Corning have set themselves the goal of paving the way for cleaner air, clearer water, and healthier generations to come through climate initiatives, sustainable design, and stewardship.
And in my mind, there are two innovations that really highlight this:
A New Culture Flask
I love the idea of the Corning® U-shaped Cell Culture Flask so much because it combines lower environmental impact with improved scientific processes.
What that means: due to the round shoulders and slimmer design, the he flask contains 23% less plastic. So you can use 5 U-75 flasks for the same amount of plastic and surface area as 4 of the T-75 flasks!
But even better, the rounded shoulders make cell scraping easier and more efficient.
This is what I mean when I say efficiency is the overlap of optimization and sustainability.
The surface area of 75 cm² stays the same, just like the sterility level and handling.
Bonus: One feature that shows Corning is thinking about scientists is the Pipet Divot.
That simply means you can keep the flask standing upright and pipette with one hand. Thanks to the broader opening, you can even access it with a 50 mL pipette - potentially allowing you to reuse the tip when handling large volumes.
I am very excited to offer you a free sample through Corning so you can try it out - love it!
Less Plastic for Your Tips
We talked about the impressive sustainability benefits of refill systems a few weeks ago. However, you can’t avoid using a rack—at least one.
And if you work with automated robotics, you likely need several.
The Axygen® HybridRack™ Pipette Tip Rack can help you reduce your impact by saving a staggering 70% plastic!
It was designed as a paperboard–plastic hybrid: paperboard to reduce plastic, and plastic to provide a strong, reusable base. This makes it robust enough for robotics while featuring a unique filter tip reload system.
Corning even went so far as to obtain the My Green Lab® ACT Ecolabel® for it - which you can check out here.
And beyond the 70% less plastic, the tips themselves have been dematerialized compared to traditional Axygen tip racks.
When I was working in cell culture, I used 4 flasks per week for my cells. An average flask weighs about 60 g. So switching to Corning flasks would save 2.76 kg of waste per year.
For this calculation, I assumed a total of 15 scientists actively working in the laboratory. However, since not everyone typically works in cell culture, I estimated that only 10 of them would use the U-shaped culture flasks. This might be a conservative estimate, but my aim here is to illustrate the potential savings — the percentages and proportional relationships remain the same regardless.
Now consider that for an entire group...
And all of that without any extra effort.
Similarly, for the tip racks:
According to Freese et al., one of their representative research groups used 144 000 tips per year, which translates to 1 500 tip boxes.
Assuming they don’t use refill systems, that means one could cut 84 kg of plastic waste just through tip boxes.
You often see companies creating flyers like this:
My tip: take a closer look—because they often contain innovations you wouldn’t expect!
Tip: Click to enlarge. Corning has put together a poster for you, considering three main categories for action: reducing energy use, choosing consumables that minimize waste, and optimizing lab processes to support sustainability. You can find more here.
And in case you haven't seen my post, here is a white paper for you:
This white paper provides an overview of sustainability challenges and explores solutions for waste management—without compromising efficiency or cost.
Upcoming Lesson:
Sustainability Resources For Your Lab
How We Feel Today
References
De Paepe, M., et al., 2024. Purchases dominate the carbon footprint of research laboratories. PLOS Sustain. Transform., 3(7), e0000116. doi:10.1371/journal.pstr.0000116.
Freese, A., et al., 2024. The relevance of sustainable laboratory practices. RSC Sustainability, 2, 1300–1336. doi:10.1039/D4SU00056K.
If you have a wish or a question, feel free to reply to this Email. Otherwise, wish you a beautiful week! See you again on the 9th : )
Edited by Patrick Penndorf Connection@ReAdvance.com Lutherstraße 159, 07743, Jena, Thuringia, Germany Data Protection & Impressum If you think we do a bad job: Unsubscribe
Personal Note From Patrick, The Editor Hi Reader, preparation or action? Obviously, one cannot succeed without the other. But talking about preparation is often underappreciated because most people want action as fast as possible. Yet this impatience can lead them to achieve less in the end: Today's Lesson: How To Prepare For Change What we can do to pave the way for sustainability Number Of The Day Sometimes we have to be patient. Waiting for the right moment is hard, but often worth it....
Personal Note From Patrick, The Editor Hi Reader, have you ever changed a running system? It’s not a good idea. I've never done it in research, but I’ve unfortunately done it outside of it. However, changing the system at the right time is one of the best ideas - and this subtle difference is important. Let’s find out how to drive change safely and why it’s more a question of tactics than science: Today's Lesson: How To Drive Change Safely Tactics and insights on how to make processes greener...
Personal Note From Patrick, The Editor Hi Reader, what temperature are your freezers set to? Most often, there is concern about setting freezers to -70°C. One argument is power outages - however, this only gives you 2–4 hours until a -80°C freezer reaches -70°C. The other major concern is sample degradation... Let’s discover what the literature says: Today's Lesson: Is Storage at -70°C Safe? Reviewing the literature on low temperature storage Number Of The Day If you set your freezer from -80...
