Linking Sustainability with Business Priorities

Air Quality, Automation, Energy, Environment, Fumes, Plastic, Pollution, Solvents, Sustainability, Waste,

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This document features examples taken from Building A Business Case – Email us for a copy.

Sustainability & Profitability

Constant media coverage on air quality, plastic pollution and working conditions makes sustainability an increasingly important issue. This is true for businesses and labs of all sizes in all industries.

Presenting an aura of corporate social responsibility is good PR. However, the only authentic way for business leaders to contribute meaningfully to societal goals is by making sustainability an exercise in profitability.

Some target consumers who pay premiums for products that limit harm to the environment or the workers who make them. Others benefit by driving costs down in the process of re-thinking legacy product design and production methods.

Whatever the specific method, the point remains. In order for sustainable practices to succeed, they have to be alighted with the financial success of the businesses implementing them.

Laboratory driven businesses are no different. Businesses who meet sustainability targets are those that continually revisit, improve and refine procedures for greater efficiency.

These efficiencies are often surprising and cumulative in nature.

 

Plastics:

Disposable syringe tips are single use items that add up to a significant amount of waste. This is particularly true in high throughput labs.

We’ve helped a number of labs eliminate their need for them by using reusable syringes. They cost around £150 per unit with one high-usage system expected to use around 6 syringes per year.

At Anatune we expect a syringe to make 6,000 injections before needing to be replaced for £150. At a cost of £0.50 per pipette tip that is a saving of £2,850 on one application per 6,000 samples.

 

Solvents:

Not only are solvents expensive to buy, store and dispose of, they’re potentially harmful, both to those handling them and to the environment.

Through miniaturised automated techniques, it is possible to use as little as 0.02% of the amount of solvent per extraction used in traditional methods. This greatly reduces both the disposal and exhaust emissions associated with a heavy reliance on solvents.

These smaller sample sizes open up a potential for a 98% reduction in volumes of hazardous solvents such as dichloromethane to purchase, store and dispose of. In this app note, scaling down the technique saved around 163 litres per year, amounting to a cost saving of £8,150 plus associated disposal costs.

 

Energy:

The Anatune fume cupboard running 8 hours per day for 253 days per year would cost approximately £1,300. This considers the modification of the temperature of replaced air and the power required to run it in the first place.

One Anatune customer recently calculated that by automating just one method, they could reduce their reliance on fume cupboards from 6 to just 1. The energy savings alone contributed significantly to justifying the purchase of a system required to pay for itself within two years.

These examples represent just a few of the efficiencies that Anatune can help you achieve in your lab. From method development to automating workflows to data processing. Anatune has over 24 years of helping people link sustainability and efficiency to great effect.

We’ve created a document that helps people build a business justification for modernising workflows. Exploring the issue from a number of different angles, including meeting sustainability targets, it’s a vital resource.

Send an email to enquiries@anatune.co.uk or click here to get your copy.

If you think that we might be able to help your lab operate more efficiently, get in touch today.