How Monarch nucleic acid purification offers sustainability without compromising quality

Nucleic acid purification often uses plastic spin column-based formats for ease of use and performance — developing a reputation of being less sustainable. When first developing our Monarch^® products, New England Biolabs asked: how can nucleic acid purification be more sustainable? Monarch’s sustainability-first approach helps reduce waste and plastic use while maintaining ease of use, quality and affordability.

“All of our Monarch products are created with these principles in mind,” Lucy Foulston, Associate Director, Nucleic Acid Purification Kit Development, said. “From product idea inception through to product realization, we make choices that minimize waste.”

With Monarch, NEB aims to support labs that need to regularly extract and purify nucleic acids while encouraging greener lab practices.

How can nucleic acid purification kits reduce plastics?

Nucleic acid purification kits can be thoughtfully designed to reduce plastic waste. With Monarch kits, reagent bottles have been designed to have less unused volume, which reduces plastic and overall packaging sizes. Plus, smaller bottles with the same volume means that some of your valuable lab space is saved.

Monarch kit components are also sold separately, providing the flexibility to adjust your material needs to your workflow and save some of your budget.

When sustainability improves performance

Monarch kits use unique columns custom-designed to significantly reduce plastic — while creating a product that improves ease of use, quality and performance.

Monarch spin columns reduce plastics without compromising quality.

Not only does the design of our Monarch columns reduce the environmental impact of nucleic acid purification, but our precise, state-of-the-art manufacturing automation system is to key to their dependability and high performance.

“This precision automation helps ensure customers receive consistently high-quality spin columns lot after lot,” Group Leader, Nucleic Acid Purification Production, Darcie Spaulding said. “Monarch spin columns are tested against multiple quality specifications to help ensure reliable, intended performance.”

Manufacturing columns in-house allows Monarch provides us greater control over Monarch product design. The results? Easy handling, vacuum manifold compatibility, better visualization, lower elution volume and maximized binding without carryover.

How can kit packaging be improved for sustainability?

Instead of a “one size fits all” packaging approach, Monarch kits have specially designed packaging to minimize empty space and support upcycling. Paper materials are made with recycled material, and box printing uses sustainable energy resources.

Monarch kits are designed to reduce packaging waste.

“We thoughtfully package our Monarch kits using kit inserts to help organize and ensure kit components arrive to customers ready to use and for minimal impact during shipping,” Spaulding said. “We have multiple box sizes to maximize shipping efficiency and reduce our carbon footprint as much as possible.”

Doing our part to support a greener future

Scientists can’t eliminate lab plastic and packaging waste entirely — but biologists and other researchers can consider the impact their workflows have on the environment and how they may be able to mitigate harm. Resources like Labconscious^®, a website provided by NEB, can help life science labs find more ways to reduce waste and lower their environmental impact.

Monarch offers an easy way to support greener lab practices without choosing between value, performance and sustainability. Our nucleic acid purification products show that, with care and thoughtfulness, scientists can reduce their impact on the environment without compromising on their research performance needs.

“I think people would be surprised at the amount of time involved in these decisions — we do our best to meet the needs of our customers while making responsible choices for the environment,” Spaulding said.

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