Sustainability

iGEM Malaga: Recycling Waste Olive Oil into Paint for Kids

Posted on by Promega

Today’s blog was written in collaboration with Melissa Martin, a global marketing intern with Promega. She is a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she is double majoring in zoology and life sciences communication, with a certificate in environmental studies.

In the best circumstances, leftover cooking oil ends up in a recycling center and is eventually burned as a biofuel. But it is also frequently dumped down kitchen drains where it proceeds to pollute sewage, water treatment facilities, and waterways.

Is there a more valuable and less harmful way to use up waste cooking oil? A group of students at the University of Málaga thinks they have a solution that will also make science more approachable and exciting for children.

Picture of UMA_MALAGA team in their lab where they are working on a project to recycle waste olive oil
The UMA_MALAGA team. Front row, left to right: Natalia Cardoso, Fran Antequera, Isa Antequera, and Alex Jiménez. Back row, left to right: Maria Rodríguez, Alvaro Jiménez, Juan Herrera, Alex Rojo, Dani Díaz, and Christina Viúdez.
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How to Commit to Global Responsibility with Local Accountability

Posted on by Michele Arduengo

This summer, Dr. Anette Leue, Director of Digital Marketing and PR Promega GmbH, represented Promega Corporation in Sustainability Day activities sponsored by Smart Lab Connects. Dr. Leue presented Promega Corporation’s corporate responsibility activities and joined a panel discussion about global responsibility with representatives from Eppendorf, Max Planck Sustainability Network, and NIUB Sustainability Consultants.

Dr. Anette Leue, pictured, talked about global responsibility as part of Sustainability Day.

As the Sustainability Day activities progressed, what became apparent is that calls for sustainable business growth are coming from all directions. Customers of life sciences companies are asking, “what are you doing to be a responsible company”? And, employees also are asking the same question of their employers. This interest sustainability and global responsibility by customers, employees and local communities is bringing into sharp focus the activities of companies to be good corporate citizens. Sustainability and global responsibility programs are no longer nice extras for life science companies, but rather are requirements for doing business.

“Sustainability is not a “nice to have”, but something that should be intrinsically implemented in the companies.”

Dr. Anette Leue
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National Wildlife Day: Admiring Our Natural World

Posted on by Riley Bell

On September 4th, 2021 we celebrate National Wildlife Day. This day helps cherish our planet’s biodiversity and recognize issues that impact wildlife. Take a look at three Promega blogs that highlight preservation and conservation efforts being made to support our natural world.

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2030 Sustainability Goals: Our Most Ambitious Ever

Posted on by Jordan Villanueva
Solar Panels on three Promega Madison buildings - Corporate Responsibility focuses on sustainability and supporting our employees, customers and communities.

The Promega Corporate Responsibility Report captures a variety of stories of how we’ve supported our employees, customers and communities over the past year. For example, in 2020, 735 million samples were tested for SARS-CoV-2 using Promega reagents. We launched a new scholarship to support students from underserved backgrounds, and we completed our three largest solar arrays on our Madison, WI campus. As we look to the future, we recognize that there are always more opportunities to reduce our environmental impact. That’s why we’re setting our most ambitious sustainability goals ever.

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Growing Through Sustainability Sensibilities

Posted on by Riley Bell
Inside Kornberg Center at our Fitchburg, WI campus.

We recently announced the opening of our newly constructed Kornberg Center research and development facility on our Fitchburg, WI campus. While we grow our company through new facilities around the globe, it is vitally important that we expand our sustainability efforts along the way. We are committed to preserving and improving our environment for a thriving future.

Prioritizing Sustainability with Best Practices from Around the World

Incorporating sustainability best practices from around the world is key to our long-term planning. Each new Promega facility is designed to meet ambitious sustainability objectives, and innovations incorporated in one project inform the next. We also align projects to meet United Nations Global Compact Sustainable Development Goals. All of our locations collectively contribute to minimizing the effect we have on our environment.

Here are a few of many sustainability initiatives Promega practices around the world:

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Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle During the Holidays

Posted on by Riley Bell

In the latter months of the year, the holiday season brings lots of gifts, packages, and deliveries. One of the best ways to spread holiday cheer and connect with one another is to reduce, reuse, and recycle packaging material. Doing so will benefit the gift that keeps on giving—our planet.

The question is, what’s the best way to reduce, reuse, and recycle the materials used for gifting? First, it’s important to know which gifting material is recyclable and which is not recyclable. 

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Earth Day 2020: Celebrating Nature During A Pandemic

Posted on by Jordan Villanueva

Since Wisconsin issued a Safer at Home order on March 25, I have been leaving my home exactly once a week. Every Tuesday morning, I drive to a small town outside of Madison to spend an hour monitoring a nest of bald eagles. I’ve been volunteering for Bald Eagle Nest Watch since the beginning of the year, and three weeks ago I got my first look at two newly hatched eaglets. Over the past few weeks, I’ve found that my time at the eagle nest is a wonderful relief from the stress of the pandemic and the confinement to my home.

I’m not the only person escaping to natural spaces for relief during the widespread lockdowns in response to COVID-19. Parks have been filled with people taking daily walks and enjoying fresh air when there are few places indoors they can safely go. Besides encouraging many people to visit local parks and forests, the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed many complexities of humanity’s relationship with the environment. The severe drop in human activities has resulted in decreased air pollution, as well as fascinating changes in wildlife behavior. However, the pandemic is also an important reminder that the environmental impact of human activity has drastic consequences for global risk of infectious disease. This Earth Day, it’s the perfect time to pause and examine how the COVID-19 pandemic and the natural world are influencing each other for better and for worse.

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How Does Our Garden Grow?

Posted on by Darcia Schweitzer

It’s the time of year in the northern US when you start to the miss green grass, ample daylight and warm breezes that are still months away. The promise of spring’s renewal and seedlings sprouting from the snow-covered ground seems too far out to even indulge in a daydream of better weather.

But then again, I’m not a farmer.                                                    

The Promega Culinary Garden at Bluebird Farms.

Now is the time of year when farmers are reflecting on last year’s harvest, making decisions about changes that need to be made and planning for the upcoming growing season. This work includes choosing what plants and varieties will be planted, estimating how many of each are needed and ordering the seeds. Crop rotation and cover crops are also part of the considerations.

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you may know that Promega has a culinary garden that supplies some of the produce for our cafeterias on the Madison campus. During the growing season our Culinary Gardener, Logan Morrow, oversees the operations of Bluebird Farms with the help of his colleage Mike Daugherty.

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New Year, New Buildings, Same Commitment to Sustainability

Posted on by Jordan Villanueva

In times of rapid growth, we look to the future with excitement while also assuring that our expansion is sustainable. The Promega Global Facilities Planning Team emphasizes environmental stewardship and long-term planning. Each building is designed to meet ambitious sustainability goals, and innovations incorporated into each project inform the next. In 2019, we finished construction on two new buildings in Europe and made progress on two important facilities at our headquarters in Wisconsin.

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Sustainability Makeover: Parking Ramp Edition

Posted on by Mariel Mohns
parking_ramp_solar_panels

As Promega grows globally and locally here at headquarters, the construction of new and expanding facilities are considered with great care to ensure a commitment to sustainability. Between April and November of 2019, the parking ramp located near the Feynman Center received a massive upgrade with long-term impacts on the company’s sustainability goals.

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