Eurofins Genomics makes a difference

Eurofins Genomics wants to make a difference and contribute to the reduction of environmental pollution. Our goal is to establish more means to advance our endeavour to become a green company.

We already started to make environmentally friendly changes in two main areas:

Less plastic for sample shipment

You can now use environmentally friendly paper bags for the shipment of your sequencing samples and primers in tubes for our Sanger sequencing services. These paper Tube Bags replace the old plastic bags from now on. You will receive them with your barcode order or you can order them free of charge in our shop.

Our padded C5 sized Handy Sample Bags for safe shipment of sequencing samples to the Eurofins Genomics lab in Ebersberg, Germany, are now made of 100% recycled paper and certified with “Blue Angel”.

Our proprietary and validated NGS UDI Primer Sets for multiplexing on every Illumina platform are shipped in environmentally friendly and stable cardboard boxes.

Other plastic packaging will be replaced gradually by environmentally friendly packaging! Stay tuned for the next announcement!

The new ecoBÖXLE

We are going one step further. Our Böxle, the famous mini container for sample shipment, is now also environmental friendly and called ecoBÖXLE.

The new ecoBÖXLE will replace the orange plastic BÖXLE and the metallic sample box. The already existing plastic BÖXLEs will gradually be removed from circulation and only be used for internal processes.

Benefits of the new ecoBÖXLE:

The ecoBÖXLE is smaller and lighter than the plastic Böxle and metallic sample box, which translates to less CO₂ emission during transport of samples for sequencing and oligos/genes.
The new ecoBÖXLE is made of recycled paper and has the “Blue Angel” eco-label that is given to particularly environmentally friendly products.
The cleaning and reprocessing of the plastic Böxle and metallic sample box involved additional transport routes that are eliminated now. Additionally, the plastic Böxles and metallic sample boxes were often never returned or came back in unusable conditions and, therefore, had to be disposed of, generating plastic waste. This is now also eliminated.

How to assemble the new ecoBÖXLE:

Virtual codes instead of printed labels for TubeSeq, PlateSeq and NGS

For our Sanger Sequencing services, labels and barcodes are often used to label samples.
Our product innovation aiming at reducingCO_{2 p}roduction allows us to reduce the amount of printed labels and barcodes for our TubeSeq, PlateSeq and NGS services.
Our new Coupons, virtual codes, are now used instead of labels and barcodes to pay for additional TubeSeq, PlateSeq or NGS reactions.

CO₂ reduction and less waste:

The virtual codes are generated with one click in our webshop.
No printing or shipping of labels and delivery notes.

The environmentally friendly and reliable logistic concept

Vienna, Austria

For sample collection via our DropBoxes and delivery of oligos and genes in Vienna, we use bicycle couriers.

This allows for a very fast and at the same time flexible service. In the first phase of the trial, the couriers collected all samples from the DropBoxes on time! These included samples for our Sanger sequencing, next generation sequencing and cell line authentication services.

For the second phase, we decided to extend the service. The bicycle couriers started to deliver all oligonucleotides and synthetic genes orders.

Now the bicycle couriers are a permanent part of our logistics in Vienna!

The advantages of this system

The use of bicycles is environmentally friendly.
Samples are collected directly from the customers, which is often essential for NGS.
Oligonucleotides are delivered to our customers’ labs!
The bicycle couriers are highly flexible and are able to navigate more effectively in heavy traffic. This leads to exact and punctual sample collection from our DropBoxes.
The bicycle couriers ensure that the DropBoxes stay functional and well maintained.
New DropBoxes can be opened promptly and served easily.

Our mission is to continuously provide our customers with reliable and fast services and products. We understand that they need their results, as well as their ordered oligos and genes in very short time. As this logistics service in Vienna works very well, we are planning to expand this system to other major cities.

Paris, France

The Eurofins Genomics France team established a more environmentally friendly transportation concept for the Paris region. Oligos and genes are delivered to customers in the morning and samples are collcted in the afternoon by couriers on scooters and a car to cover the longest distances. The car will be replaced soon by a hybrid car or even 100% electric car to decrease our CO₂impact.

Carbon Neutrality – 2025 Objective

Eurofins acknowledges the imperative to restrict the escalation of global warming to a level significantly below 2 degrees Celsius, with a preference for limiting it to 1.5 degrees Celsius, as stipulated in the 2015 Paris Agreement. Eurofins also understands the crucial role that reducing greenhouse gas emissions plays in attaining this objective. The Eurofins group is committed to quantifying and mitigating its carbon emissions. Although the endeavors to offset a portion of Eurofins’ inevitable carbon footprint are voluntary and not obligatory within our sector, they take precedence due to the paramount importance of decelerating the pace of global warming.

Based on preliminary assessments and the measures implemented thus far, Eurofins is well on its path to achieving carbon emission neutrality by 2025. This achievement is anticipated through a combination of emissions reductions and compensatory initiatives.

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Eurofins Genomics Goes Green

Packaging

Logistics

Less plastic for sample shipment