Doing Good While Doing Well

Our mission is to improve health and sustainability by working in service of our customers who are changing the world for the better. We do that by providing high-quality synthetic DNA, both at scale and fast, so that our customers can focus on their research and not be held up making or waiting for DNA. Another way that we support sustainability efforts both for our customers and for ourselves is in how we make DNA.

We’ve miniaturized the chemical reaction to create and write DNA on a silicon chip. This allows us to make one million short pieces of DNA, called oligonucleotides (or oligos for short), at once on a single silicon chip, compared to other methods that use a 96-well plate to make 96 oligos. With our process we use 99.8% less chemicals than 96-well plate approaches¹.

We’ve also quantified the carbon footprint of making a single gene. Using our approach, 0.036kg (36 grams) of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e) is emitted per gene, compared to emissions of up to 23 kg per gene for 96-well plate approaches¹. This is the equivalent of greenhouse gasses emitted from driving a gasoline-powered car for 0.092 miles compared to 59 miles². That’s like driving the length of just under one and half football fields compared to driving the entire length of the state of Rhode Island from south to north and continuing on for eleven more miles.

For fiscal year 2022, we made and shipped about 558,000 genes to our customers. With the Twist approach, that amounts to about 20,088 kg CO₂e. If a 96-well plate approach had been used to create the same number of genes, CO₂e emissions could be up to about 12,834,000 kg CO₂e. That’s the equivalent of greenhouse gas emitted from driving the circumference of the Earth about 2.07 times compared to about 1,323.7 times².

To help us ensure that our calculations are accurate, we’ve had our carbon footprint data validated by a well-respected third party. We’ve received a certificate of validation from Silinnov Consulting. Silinnov certified that our calculations and methodology are correct referring to standards set by the Bilan Carbone® methodology, which is most widely adopted in France, the GHG Protocol, and some of the standards for the use of chemical reagents set by ISO.

By manufacturing our DNA in a way that uses fewer chemicals and has a smaller carbon footprint per gene than 96-well plate approaches, we aim to be a more sustainable part of our customers’ supply chains.

To learn more about our sustainability efforts visit: https://www.twistbioscience.com/company/esg?tab=environmental.

¹ Calculated Twist internal data using Dr. Oligo benchmark January 2021

² Calculated using the EPA Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator