Greener Products and Solutions

In response to the need for solvents to meet stricter regulation requirements for employee safety and environmental sustainability, MilliporeSigma introduced Cyrene™—a sustainable dipolar aprotic solvent, produced in two steps from a renewable cellulose source. Learn more about how MilliporeSigma is taking giant steps toward smaller footprints.

See how we're changing the way the world looks at single-use waste with the Biopharma Recycling Program.

As part of our brand-new employee spotlight series, we’re sitting down with Fabien Thibault, global manager of product and packaging sustainability at MilliporeSigma — the Life Science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany — to learn more about the work he’s doing to move the needle.

To help scientists, researchers and manufacturers reduce their environmental footprint, MilliporeSigma expanded its DOZN™ system — an industry-first quantitative green chemistry tool that evaluates the relative greenness of chemicals and chemical processes against the 12 Principles of Green Chemistry.

As part of MilliporeSigma’s commitment to reduce its environmental impact, the company has launched a new SMASH Packaging Plan — a four-year approach to drive improvement in the sustainability of its packaging. Through this initiative, MilliporeSigma is setting new standards and goals to shrink, secure, switch and save packaging while still meeting the required performance requirements and transit safety regulations.

Single-use plastic is on the rise in the life science industry—making it increasingly important to change the end-of-life scenario for products, which often end up in landfills or are incinerated. MilliporeSigma continues to tackle this issue through its unique, industry-first recycling programs operated in partnership with Triumvirate Environmental—taking big steps toward smaller footprints.

MilliporeSigma today launched Cyrene™ — a sustainable dipolar aprotic solvent, produced in two steps from a renewable cellulose source. The bio-derived alternative was created in response to the need for solvents to meet stricter regulation requirements for both employee safety and environmental sustainability. The new product targets the rising demand for greener alternatives to Dimethylformamide (DMF) and N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP).

Published in Nature Communications, the team has found that using a material called dihydrolevogucosenone known as Cyrene is not only non-toxic but is environmentally- friendly and sustainable but can also provide higher concentrations and conductivity of graphene ink.

One of the latest advancements is Triumvirate Environmental’s process at its Jeannette, Pennsylvania facility. According to Jacqueline Ignacio, global manager, customer sustainability solutions, MilliporeSigma, the company’s procedure is a combination of a fully permitted and approved processing – known as sterilize and shred – with plastic lumber manufacturing.

“Other companies have started to address the biomedical waste from hospitals and medical clinics with front-end processes similar to sterilize and shred,” Ignacio said. “While these systems aren’t as robust and are more portable for smaller labs and clinics, they aren’t effective for the larger volumes produced in the biopharma manufacturing industry.”

How can you develop environmentally friendly chemicals that are just as effective as traditional substances? This question has been asked by the life science company, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. Through the company's "Green Chemistry" program, the Group develops and produces sustainable alternatives to the usual chemical products.