One Shared Pursuit

In general, certification agencies define the term "zero waste" as the diversion from landfill of at least 90% of a site's waste materials. Acceptable disposal alternatives to landfill include reuse, recycling, and (as a last resort) incineration used to generate energy. Zero-waste strategies are increasingly moving from the margins to the mainstream: not only because implementing them is the right thing to do, but because it makes financial sense, too. Many global companies are reaping economic benefits through the operational savings and innovative partnerships that have resulted from these initiatives.

Systemically reducing waste can generate significant cost savings by cutting raw material inputs, energy use, and fees for waste haulage and landfill disposal. Companies can also generate revenue by recycling materials with market value. But there are intangible benefits as well: in today's competitive marketplace, adopting zero-waste goals can boost brand value as well as employee engagement and pride. Customers, too, are becoming more sustainability-minded and they are increasingly taking their business to companies with a reputation for environmental stewardship. [2,3]

Saving money and saving the Earth don't have to be mutually exclusive. If your institution is interested in moving toward zero waste, check out our guide that explains five steps you can take to get started, along with sharing lessons we learned along the way.

 View our guide to creating a zero-waste facility

Up until February of 2019, if you sent in your thermal cycler for repairs, it had to go on quite a journey. The instrument would first be shipped to our office in Frederick, Maryland; travel by truck from there to John F. Kennedy Airport in New York; and then board a flight to the Thermo Fisher Scientific Global Repair Center in Singapore.

It might have been a nice vacation for your instrument, but it meant a bit of a wait for you-and also resulted in 19,042 miles of air travel. It's no secret that aviation is a major climate polluter, emitting over 900 million metric tons of carbon dioxide every year.⁽¹⁾  That's why activist Greta Thunberg crossed the Atlantic by solar-powered sailboat in 2019, inspiring others to reduce their air travel to help address global climate change.

Now, with the opening of our North America Repair Center-which is equipped to service thermal cyclers, as well as some benchtop qPCR devices, that were originally being repaired in Singapore-we're helping cut emissions.

Not only do our customers in North America receive the same great instrument service with up to two-thirds less waiting time (an average of 8 business days, down from a 28-day average wait time for instruments repaired overseas), they also benefit from reduced shipping costs. Plus, by having their instruments serviced in the North America Repair Center, our customers join us on our continuous pursuit of minimizing the impact of science on the environment.

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