MilliporeSigma Working to Advance Packaging Sustainability

Merck KGaA has a purpose at its core, to pass the company on to the next generation better than they found it. To support this, the life sciences business unit of Merck KGaA, MilliporeSigma established a leading Design for Sustainability program for its products and services. In this work, it became clear that a similar approach for sustainable packaging was needed. Being a global leader in life sciences with a diverse and vast product offering, with over 300,000 items, the company knew that finding an actional and meaningful business-wide approach for sustainable packaging would be challenging.

Pure Strategies played a key role in the development of MilliporeSigma’s Design for Sustainability program that was launched in 2014 and this partnership continued as we worked together to develop a comprehensive sustainable packaging strategy. Our work on this project began with helping the business build a better understanding of its’ packaging — collecting data, interviewing packaging experts, evaluating the recyclability of packaging, and identifying stakeholder concerns. We used this information as the basis for identifying priorities, setting targets, and establishing a framework for its sustainable packaging program.

Critical to the process was then using this detailed view of the status of sustainable packaging to identify areas of a focus that covered the broad business. Our team collaborated with MilliporeSigma to ensure these topics addressed the greatest opportunities for improvement and stakeholder and business considerations.

The most material topics ended up including the reduction of excess packaging, sourcing more sustainable materials, and using packaging that is recyclable. We then used these focus areas to create a sustainable packaging framework to drive improvement, that included targets and metrics for measuring improvement, along with detailed guidance on what is expected and how to make progress for both new and existing products.

The MilliporeSigma SMASH Packaging Plan is the sustainable packaging program created to support the global business. It is centered on three-pillars: optimize resources, use more sustainable materials, and design for a circular economy. Within these, the SMASH Packaging Plan was initially set up with four-year targets to drive significant improvements in the sustainability of packaging across four main ambitions:

• Shrink – reduce the amount of packaging
• Secure - achieve zero deforestation
• Switch – improve plastic sustainability and
• Save – maximize recycling

The new sustainable packaging program was rolled out internally with the help of the detailed guidance document and training. The work then began at the company to reduce packaging waste, enhance the use of more sustainable materials, and make it easier for customers to recycle.

The SMASH Packaging Plan includes, among other things, the company’s new deforestation policy for packaging aimed to ensure responsibly sourced fiber. The business rolled this out to suppliers and surveyed their progress. The insight from the information received from suppliers helped develop action plans to advance this policy. The business also made progress switching out dunnage and expanded polystyrene to options with lower impacts and harmonized this approach across the globe.

Fabien Thibault, Global Manager of Product and Packaging Sustainability at MilliporeSigma notes, “Product packaging and shipping have a significant impact on the environmental footprint of our products. We launched our SMASH Packaging sustainable packaging strategy to find new ways of making our products and packaging more environmentally sustainable, while getting them to our customers in a safe and timely manner. We are proud of the program and how it has aligned the global business on clear priorities. We are excited by the progress we have made and what the program will continue to drive.”