How Do You Measure the True Environmental Footprint of an Analytical Instrument?

At analytica 2026 in Munich, Germany, LCGC International spoke with Sébastien Rolle from Shimadzu Europa GmbH about his presentation, "Make Chromatography Greener: Is Less Solvent the Way Forward?"¹

In this video interview, Rolle answers the following question:

• How do you quantify or benchmark the environmental footprint of an analytical instrument or method across its full life cycle?

According to Rolle, there are four levels where instruments providers could have an impact on sustainability. They are:

1. Instrument manufacturing; reducing raw materials/energy consumption and CO₂ emission
2. Supporting internal initiatives to promote and support internal (employee and subsidiaries) initiatives to improve sustainability
3. Supporting people and companies that are working on new energies/technologies (batteries, green chemistry/hydrogen) with knowledge, and even developing new instruments or technologies if needed
4. Designing instruments to reduce their impact on their daily use and life in the lab.

Rolle argues that the greatest leverage lies in instrument design itself. The choices made at the design stage cascade through every subsequent phase of a product's life, determining solvent and gas consumption, energy draw, and the feasibility of greener methods for the end user. Manufacturing these instruments demands substantial quantities of energy alongside critical raw materials, including polymers and rare earth elements. Once in routine laboratory use, they frequently rely on organic solvents or gases as mobile phases, producing effluents and waste streams that pose risks to both human health and the wider environment. The energy required to run these instruments adds a further burden, one that is compounded in countries where electricity generation remains heavily dependent on fossil fuels.²

The development of chromatographic approaches that operate with little or no organic solvent, such as supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) and chromatography (SFC), is particularly promising for both sample preparation and analysis.³

Sébastien Rolle is Market Manager Green Transformation at Shimadzu Europa GmbH, with expertise in green chromatographic methods including supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) and supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC).

References

1. Rolle, S. Make Chromatography Greener: Is Less Solvent the Way Forward? Presented at analytica 2026, Munich, Germany. https://analytica.de/en/event-program/conference/lecture/make-chromatography-greener-is-less-solvent-the-way-forward-16091/ (accessed 2026-04-20).
2. Gałuszka, A.; Migaszewski, Z.; Namiesnik, J. The 12 Principles of Green Analytical Chemistry and the SIGNIFICANCE Mnemonic of Green Analytical Practices. TrAC 2013, 50, 78–84. DOI: 10.1016/j.trac.2013.04.010
3. West, C. Caroline West on the Future of Sustainable SFC. https://www.chromatographyonline.com/view/caroline-west-on-the-future-of-sustainable-sfc (accessed 2026-04-20).