Environment

Protecting the environment, health and safety has always been a priority for QIAGEN.

We encourage our employees to continually look for ways in which we can help to eliminate harmful substances and waste from our products. We track our energy, emissions, water, waste, and transportation in order to introduce initiatives that reduce our impact on the environment.

“We are continuously working on innovative ways to further reduce our plastics footprint and CO₂ emissions and have set targets to measure our progress.”

Dr. Barthold Piening, Senior Vice President, Head of Global Operations

Carbon Emissions Reduction

QIAGEN views climate change as one of the most pressing global challenges. To accurately calculate our emissions, we set up a centralized data collection process for sustainability data in 2018. Each year, we have increased the scope and accuracy of our reporting.

Group of scientist standing together where one of them is pointing towards something inside of the lab

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QIAGEN has committed to reducing carbon emissions in line with a 1.5 degree Celsius climate target.

In 2020, QIAGEN will reduce scope 1 and 2 emissions by 4.2% and business travel emissions by 1.23% below the base year of 2019.

We will achieve these reductions through energy efficiency measures, installing solar panels, purchasing green energy attributed certificates and purchasing high-quality carbon credits.

Other QIAGEN initiatives to reduce emissions include: promoting less carbon-intensive commuting for our employees, reducing business travel, and switching shipments from air to sea freight where possible.

Energy efficiency
New equipment, changing behavior, designing buildings that require less energy to run
Renewable energy
On-site solar panels and purchasing greener energy
Transportation
Reducing emissions in shipping, more fuel-efficient fleet, reviewing supply chain

a person picking up an empty plastic bottle at a beach

Plastic Reduction

The environmental impact of plastics is a major concern for us and our customers. We use plastics in many of our products, production processes, and transport packaging but are actively looking for alternatives.

This year, QIAGEN has set the goal of reducing plastic transportation packaging material by 3% vs 2019 for 2020.

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This year, QIAGEN has set the goal of reducing plastic transportation packaging material by 3% vs 2019.

In 2018, we set up a global cross-departmental Plastic Footprint Reduction focus team to analyze the use of plastics and specifically identify reduction potential for QIAGEN. Our approach is to completely avoid unnecessary materials, develop more environmentally-friendly alternative materials, and where possible, optimize recyclability.

View our recycling information

Reduce
Reduce overall quantity of plastic in packaging and products
Replace
Replace plastics with non-plastic material
Recycle
Make plastic in products and packaging recyclable and communicate recycling guidelines to customers

Product life cycle assessment

QIAGEN conducted a life cycle assessment (LCA) for one of its best-selling products, the QIAamp DNA Mini Kit. The scope of the study has been the full life cycle of the product, including extraction and processing of raw materials, transport to the customer, energy and material input required when using the product, as well as transport to the disposal facility and incineration of remaining materials. The results of the LCA show that the largest relative impacts result from the production of plastic, transport and electricity during production and use.

Read the full lifecycle analysis

The Hilden Volunteer Sustainability Committee

Employee Engagement

QIAGEN’s volunteer sustainability committees are grassroots, employee-led groups at sites across the world. Committees primarily focus on their own region, but often collaborate with each other to share ideas and experience. They introduce new operating procedures to reduce our environmental footprint, create education campaigns, and organize volunteer events.

To support and drive these initiatives at a local and global level QIAGEN has appointed a Lead for Global Sustainability within the Global EHS department. Please send questions or requests for further information on QIAGEN’s sustainability activities to sustainability@qiagen.com.

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Sustainability Initiatives

Find a full account of our sustainability initiatives in our annual non-financial statement.

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