Waters becomes first liquid chromatography column provider to receive My Green Lab ACT ecolabel certification

Waters became the first vendor to obtain ACT Ecolabel Certification for 42 of its liquid chromatography columns, providing independent validation of the environmental impact of Waters column manufacturing, use, packaging, and disposal

72  ASMS Conference on mass spectrometry and allied topics – Waters Corporation announced that more than 40 products within its liquid chromatography (LC) chemistry portfolio have obtained Accountability, Consistency, and Transparency (ACT) Ecolabels from My Green Lab, a nonprofit organisation dedicated to building a global culture of sustainability in science. For more than 50 years, Waters has built a world-class reputation as a single-source manufacturer of LC column chemistries, with expertise in stationary phase synthesis, column hardware fabrication, and column packing.

“Today, sustainability is very much a part of our customers’ decision-making process. Certifying Waters columns with ACT Ecolabels makes it easier for customers to make an environmentally conscious choice without having to sacrifice analytical performance and results,” said Erin Chambers, Vice President, Consumables and Lab Automation, Waters Corporation. 

“We have always been committed to helping customers find the right chromatography column to solve their separation challenges. Over the years, innovations like MaxPeak Premier High-Performance Surfaces and CORTECS Solid Core Particles have delivered very high robustness and efficiency to the analytical laboratory. It is a real point of pride for us to be leading the way as the first vendor to provide ACT Ecolabels for our LC columns.”

Waters offers a wide array of column choices and formats, including HPLC, UHPLC, GPC, SFC, and SEC, all built on reliable quality manufacturing that ensures that methods developed today will have the same repeatable results tomorrow.

Waters pioneered ultra performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) in 2004 with the launch of the ACQUITY UPLC Column, enabling the optimal use of sub 2-µm particles for the first time. With up to 9x faster separations and 80 per cent reduction in solvent usage compared to HPLC, it is estimated that Waters ACQUITY UPLC Column and system users have saved more than 300 million hours of operational runtime and 27 million litres of mobile phase (2). In addition, Waters is continuing to improve the sustainability of chromatography columns by redesigning packaging to replace the non-recyclable foam inserts with recycled and recyclable plastic and reducing column box sizes by 50 per cent (3)

The Environmental Impact Factor (EIF) criteria, forming the basis for the ACT Ecolabel, was crafted with insights from scientists, sustainability directors, procurement specialists, and manufacturers. By emphasising Accountability, Consistency, and Transparency (ACT) around manufacturing, energy and water use, packaging, and end-of-life, ACT makes it easy to choose more sustainable products. Waters ACQUITY and CORTECS Chromatography Columns are the first such products to earn the ACT Ecolabel from My Green Lab following a rigorous third-party verification process. 

 Additional Resources

• Find and download ACT Ecolabels for Waters Columns in the ACT Database
• Find the right LC columns for your applications using Waters Column Coach
• Read the Waters 2023 ESG Report  to learn about Waters commitment to sustainability