Month: November 2024

The holidays are a time for joy, celebration and giving, but amidst all the festivities, we must still be mindful of our impact on the planet. And since the biggest shopping weekend of the year is only days away, sustainable holiday shopping and spending become increasingly important around this time as people seek ways to celebrate the season while minimizing their environmental footprint.

Eco-friendly behavior starts with buying decisions. So, whatever your shopping plans entail for Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday and beyond, there are countless ways to step up to do your share for cleaner air and cut down on waste while grabbing the best deals:

• Shop smarter online – Online shopping allows you to shop from the comfort of your home, leaving you and the planet happy. While unfortunately everything in life has an environmental footprint, including online shopping, you can minimize your impact by looking for companies that offer sustainable packaging and consolidating your orders rather than purchasing individual items from different shops. You’ll also want to do your best to avoid expedited and overnight shipping by completing your holiday shopping well ahead of time and opting for the slower but much eco-friendlier standard shipping option.
• Shop locally – For those who prefer to shop in person, planning ahead by mapping out your shopping plan can reduce carbon emissions that lead to poor air quality and create a much easier shopping experience overall. Also, if you’re planning to host a festive holiday dinner this year, consider shopping for sustainable produce from your local farmers. Not only does local, organic food taste better, but you’ll also be doing your part for the community and the planet.
• Bring reusable shopping bags – Holiday shopping is great fun but also a huge producer of excess plastic shopping bags. Consider keeping reusable bags in your car so they’re always available and you don’t have to worry about leaving them at home. Going the reusable route helps to reduce the number of non-renewable resources necessary to produce plastic bags, in addition to cleaning the air by reducing harmful waste that winds up in landfills.
• Look for environmentally friendly products – When making your purchases, especially big-ticket items, try to find the best green alternatives. Look for electronics and appliances that use less energy by checking for the ENERGY STAR® mark. ENERGY STAR® certified products use less energy than standard models, ultimately saving you money on your utility bill while helping to protect the environment and clear the air. You can also make sustainable decisions about your purchases by choosing products made from eco-friendly materials, such as organic cotton or recycled plastic. And remember, giving the gift of your time or a shared experience may be among the greenest options of all.

A few small changes are all it takes to help people across the St. Louis region breathe easier this holiday season. To learn more, visit the tips section of the Clean Air Partnership’s website, like us on Facebook, or follow us on X, formerly known as Twitter, @gatewaycleanair.

MilliporeSigma is a life science company and leading supplier of a diverse range of products and services for research, biotechnology production and pharmaceutical drug development. Operating globally with eight local facilities, including their St. Louis headquarters in Midtown, MilliporeSigma provides methodical, needle-moving solutions that enable customers and scientists to accelerate access to health for people everywhere – all while reducing the environmental footprint of science. This month, the Clean Air Partnership is pleased to spotlight MilliporeSigma’s focus on greener products and solutions, sustainable operations, and employee and community engagement making a big impact in the region.

“MilliporeSigma, the U.S. and Canada Life Science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt Germany, is highly committed to global sustainability,” said Emily Becker, CSP Head of Environmental, Health, Safety & Security for the St. Louis Hub. “We focus our efforts on areas where we can have the greatest impact. In St. Louis, we continue to challenge ourselves to think greener, innovate, and upgrade processes and programs. Through this mindset, we’ve reduced water usage by 30% and landfill waste by over 50% over the past few years. We are incredibly proud of the progress and excited to make an even greater impact with our upcoming initiatives.”

As a participant in the 2023 St. Louis Green Business Challenge at the Leader Level, MilliporeSigma completed numerous water savings projects, including removing single-pass chilled water and installing cleaning sprayers and level sensors and controllers, resulting in over 13M gallons of water savings per year. The company also installed a spray-ball tank cleaning system that reduces water use by 87% each cleaning cycle, ultimately resulting in water savings of an added 1.9M gallons per year.

Additional eco-friendly innovations included the creation of a process cooling loop reusing pH pit water to replace once-through city water, resulting in water savings of more than 7M gallons per year, as well as diverting all general trash (over 850 metric tons annually) from the landfill to a waste-to-energy facility. This not only helps to reduce emissions, but also largely benefits the region’s air quality!

Moreover, MilliporeSigma has implemented several sustainable upgrades to company property, including food composting and reusable dishes in the main cafeteria and the installation of 38 new electric vehicle charging stations across all locations. They also completed HVAC, VFD and LED upgrades throughout their facilities, resulting in over 1,100 MWh energy savings per year. Such advancements have allowed the company to match 100% of their purchased electricity with renewable energy.

For more information about MilliporeSigma and how your company can get involved in the St. Louis Green Business Challenge, subscribe to their bi-monthly E-Newsletter or visit stlouisgreenchallenge.com. For more on the link between sustainability and air quality, explore our website, like us on Facebook or follow us on X, formerly known as Twitter, @gatewaycleanair.

Each year on November 15, millions of people across the nation will come together for America Recycles Day, a day all about spreading the word on how recycling helps us reduce waste, save energy, and conserve precious resources. And it seems only fitting the sole nationally recognized day dedicated to promoting recycling in the U.S. comes at the perfect time – between Halloween and Thanksgiving – two holidays known for creating an excess amount of waste and a negative impact on the environment.

Even though the recycling rate has increased from less than seven percent in 1960 to the current rate of 32 percent, there is still much room for improvement and work to be done to reach the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) National Recycling Goal of 50 percent by 2030. The collective recycling efforts of businesses, communities, and individuals alike help with this success and growth, and to continue building on this progress, the EPA encourages every person living in the U.S. to contribute by recycling right, not only on America Recycles Day, but all throughout the year.

Understanding what can be recycled in your area is key to ensuring that anything you sort and place in curbside recycling containers with the intention of it being sent to your local recycling center actually makes it there. This means checking with your local recycling provider to know what they will accept in your recycling bin. Items like cardboard, metal cans, and paper are commonly accepted by local curbside programs, while items like plastic bags, electronics and batteries do not go in the curbside recycling bin. The Clean Air Partnership recommends readers research the specifics for your individual municipality.

Another tip to consider for incorporating greener recycling habits into your day-to-day routine is opting for reusable bottles and bags – that way you’re not only reducing the amount of non-renewable resources necessary to produce them, but also helping to clear the air by cutting down on the thousands that wind up in toxic landfills and never fully decompose. You can go one step greener by replacing plastic straws and using paper or reusable metal straws, too.

It’s also worth mentioning that a major portion of our waste can be reduced or reused before even resorting to recycling. Shopping at or donating to secondhand stores are great ways to prevent unwanted items from ending up in the landfill and polluting the region’s air quality. Additionally, with the holidays coming up, using recyclable materials around the house like old fabric, maps, newspapers or magazines for gift wrap are also easy ways to significantly reduce waste.

Whether it’s America Recycles Day or just another day at home or the office, your contribution, however big or small, matters. Get started today here and visit our website, like us on Facebook, or follow us on X, formerly known as Twitter, @gatewaycleanair for tips on how to achieve cleaner air the other 364 days a year.