Greener by design™
At Thermo Fisher, we leverage the power of innovation to deliver solutions that support our customers in achieving their environmental sustainability goals. Our Greener by design™ program enhances our customer value proposition by developing more sustainable products and services and standardizing product transparency.
With an integrated approach that embeds design-for-sustainability principles, we reduce the carbon footprint and enhance the circularity of our products and services early in the development process. Not only is this instrumental to advancing our emissions, water, and waste reduction goals, it also enables our customers to meet their business, scientific and sustainability priorities.
Detailed criteria for our Greener by design™ solutions are available on our website.
More sustainable solutions
The global transition to a low-carbon economy is driving customers to set science-based targets and seek suppliers who share their mindset and offer solutions to advance carbon and circularity goals.
We take sustainable product design seriously and for each of our greener product lines, we provide a green fact sheet available on our website that explains and substantiates the greener product claims.
In 2024 we expanded our portfolio of Greener by design™ solutions including:
Lower carbon solutions
- Biobased Sustain solutions: Made from second-generation biobased feedstocks, our Sustain solutions are innovative plastics that reduce carbon footprints compared to their fossil fuel-based counterparts while also maintaining identical chemical and molecular properties.
- PPD clinical trial carbon planning tool: We enable our clinical research customers to evaluate the emissions impact of trial design options.including strategy, trial decentralization, patient travel or virtual visits and investigator meetings.
- Solvent recovery in drug substance manufacturing: In 2024, we partnered with one of the world’s largest biotechs to recover waste methanol, reducing the carbon footprint of one of their products by 622 tCO2e.
- Lower carbon shipping: We use sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to ship sample collection kits for clinical trials. In 2024, this reduced the emissions of our clinical research business by 7,597 tCO2e while maintaining sample quality, chain of custody, and shipping speed.
- More energy efficient instruments: Updating our Thermo Scientific™ TSX Series ultra-low temperature freezers with near-zero global warming potential refrigerants, we achieved up to 37% less energy use than comparable models on market. The Thermo Scientific™ Orbitrap Exploris™ mass spectrometer, launched in 2024, consumes 38% less energy using a dry vacuum pump compared to traditional oil-based system.
Circular solutions
- Cold chain shipping: For years, we have provided our 100% recyclable paper cooler as an alternative to expanded polystyrene and, for clinical trial services, the Credo Cube® reusable shipper supports our cold chain needs. In 2024, we transitioned more than 233,000 InvitrogenTM antibodies to ambient shipping in padded recyclable envelopes, which eliminates the need for ice packs and coolers without affecting product quality or stability.
- Packaging: Our new global initiative to replace hard-to-recycle materials was launched in 2024 with an initial focus on phasing out polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polystyrene in select secondary and tertiary packaging solutions.
- Recycling programs: For our Fisher Scientific customers, we offer numerous reusable packaging and recycling programs, including the FisherPak™ Reusable Solvent Delivery System, the FisherBrand™ Pipette Tip Box recycling program, the RightCycle™ by Kimberly-Clark Professional and the DuPont™ Tyvek™ Garment Recycling program. Our recycling guide further provides all customers with region-specific suggestions for programs and vendors that can help them recycle or repurpose Thermo Fisher products.
Fisher Scientific Greener Choice program
To make it easier for our distribution channel customers to find products and suppliers aligned with their sustainability goals, the Fisher Scientific Greener Choice program is offered across our global platforms. In 2024, we expanded the program to include more than 60,000 environmentally preferable lab products, which are easily identified by a leaf icon and meet one or more environmental claims outlined in the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s Green Guides.
Standardizing product transparency
Customers are increasingly seeking comparable, third-party-certified information to integrate more sustainable practices into their purchasing decisions. At Thermo Fisher, we prioritize transparency that enables our customers to make informed choices regarding the environmental impact of the products they select. To support this, we are aligning our approach with industry standards, emphasizing the use of third-party ecolabels, and disclosing product carbon footprints.
Third-party ecolabels
We monitor voluntary product certifications that are awarded and verified by independent third-party organizations. In 2024, we conducted an assessment of available ecolabels against several criteria including customer expectations.. Thermo Fisher accepted five ecolabels for use with our products including the My Green Lab ACT Ecolabel, International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) PLUS, US EPA ENERGY STAR®, China Energy Label (CEL), and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
Product carbon footprint
With over one million products in our portfolio, Thermo Fisher faces unique challenges to developing a product carbon footprint (PCF) for every product sold. To address these challenges, we developed a system-level methodology in alignment with World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s (WBCSD) PACT Methodology. In 2024, we launched a pilot program to evaluate the feasibility and scalability of this methodology. The pilot generated over 13,000 PCFs, confirming the viability of our methodology and enabling PCF visibility to several customers.
