Sustainable Drop-In Bio-Based Solvents | Jeffrey Whitford, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany

Russ Fordyce (00:01): Welcome back to the Worgen of Winner Circle, everybody. I'm here today with Jeffrey Whitford. He is the VP of sustainability and social business innovation at Milipore Sigma. They are the US and Canadian life science business of Merck, based in Germany, which is a whole weird thing. But Jeffrey's here to talk to us about kind of the evolution of building sustainability into a corporation. So, Jeffrey, congratulations on the award and welcome to the show. Jeffrey Whitford (00:26): Appreciate it, Russ. It's good to be with you. Russ Fordyce (00:28): That was a mouthful. I got it though. I was really proud of myself. Jeffrey Whitford (00:33): Yeah. And get it all together, but that's what history will do for you and especially for a company that's three hundred and fifty eight years old, there's a lot Russ Fordyce (00:44): It it is incredible. This is a massive organization, and you are now I congratulations, the chief sustainability officer. This is a new announcement. congratulations on this. This has really been a fun journey watching you and this company kind of evolve in the life cycle of sustainability. I think you won the individual award, I think three or four years ago in the sustainability awards, and now you're back with the product. So before we dig into all of this. There is this three hundred year legacy. Give us the elevator pitch on Millipore Sigma. Jeffrey Whitford (01:17): So as you said, Millipore Sigma is just kind of the we'll call the doing business as name of the company that I work for, which is Merck KGA Darmstadt, Germany. So that is headquartered in Darmstadt, Germany. it's a 358-year-old company. pharmacist so the the pharmacy still actually exists in Darmstadt but that's how this all started and so it is the oldest chemical and and pharmaceutical company in the world. But we have three businesses. It's really focused on a business in electronics that works in the semiconductor vertical, a healthcare business that works in oncology, fertility, neurology and endocrinology and cardiometriomics, and then the life science business, which is what I worked for. And now I kind of cover that whole spectrum of things that I just mentioned. But that life science business works with academics around the world at universities doing scientific research, but also with pharmaceutical companies, diagnostic companies who are developing test medicines to help people leave better lead better lives. Russ Fordyce (02:23): Yeah, and and and it's you're all over healthcare, having been in some of those places that you were talking about recently. It's it's all over and it's it's amazing what goes on in a company of this size and scale. And and like I said, this evolution of interesting kind of adjacent businesses. you really you won this award, this this award for your this solvent portfolio and this is kind of a bio-based thing. To walk us through kind of what bio-based solvents are used for and kind of You know, how you started tracking the sustainability of them. Jeffrey Whitford (02:54): Yeah, so one of the things and we're we're gonna take a time machine back several years. So back in twenty thirteen, twenty fourteen, I was actually with one of my team members. We were in the UK. and meeting with a customer, and we were talking about this new solvent that we had identified and we're going to be bringing to market. And at that time, I, you know, maybe a little young and a little overly confident, said, This is going to be available in 18 months. And I look over and I see my team member, and she was like, hmm. And 18 months was was not the correct timeline. What it actually turned out to be, it was like another six years later that that material actually made it through the process to be available for customers. Customers to purchase. But it was a really important learning experience for us. So solvents, to go back to the question you asked, solvents are one of the most used materials just around the world, right? They're used for cleaning applications. That's one of the best things that you can really think about. Or you could think about nail polish remover, right? Like that's a good example of a solvent. So they break apart things to get rid of them. So they are heavily used by a lot of in a lot of different applications. And those are typically fossil fuel derived. And when you think about the scale and looking at the CO2 footprint of it in our inventory, it made up about 10% of our overall footprint was just solvents, right? And we have a product portfolio of more than 300,000 products, just to give you a sense of the scale and scope of of what we do. And so if one kind of product category has that big of a footprint, it gives you a signal. Now I can't tell you that we had that kind of idea back in 2013, 2014 about the like weight of what was happening. But the idea and how we integrate it into the product really is a core kind of component of how we have thought about sustainability with Which is right, creating a competitive advantage, using sustainability as a differentiator, just as you would quality or supply chain, the pricing, innovation, using sustainability as this lever. And we've refined that over time to make sure that we've brought that in a clear kind of perspective with measurable outcomes for our customers about the improvements that we make. And so as we kind of evolved in this chain of biobased solvents, we moved from this idea of using kind of this first one was a novel substitution, meaning it wasn't one-to-one. Customers would have to do different work to be able to use this solvent. And you know, let's be honest, humans, we don't necessarily like change. And so that was one of the things that we learned through the process was to say, okay, if that's going to be a hurdle for us to get over, that's going to take a lot of work. What happens if we could come up with a drop-in replacement? And this means it's one-to-one, chemically, structurally, identically the same. And the award that we received was for this new suite of solvents that are bio-based drop-in replacements for really highly technical applications like HPLC and LCMS. And I think this is where you see us really kind of focused in on delivering the expectations on customers. So they've got to meet a high technical standard. So still being able to do what any other material would do without compromise. I think we all had that example of like the the sustainable or more sustainable cleaner that didn't really work. It just kind of moved grease around, right? So we want to make sure we're not falling into that trap because if we lose a customer by being like, hey, there's this new more sustainable thing, and then they go and use it and it doesn't. work, we've done ourselves a huge disservice. But that's the piece is matching up the sustainability attributes along with the technical expertise to be able to deliver on something that is as I like to focus in on win-win solutions for customers. Russ Fordyce (06:48): Well, so it's you you honed in, right? You had that three hundred thousand SKU portfolio to dive into and you narrowed in on these on solvents and then you narrowed in on very specific solvents to kind of these lab based solvents. What what drew you into those lab based solvents that you saw, you know, in the portfolio that said like that's really where we can kind of Jeffrey Whitford (07:07): Yeah, so I think Russ, one of the important things is like where do you have Where do you have a right to win? And these are core products that have been in our portfolio for a very long time. And one of the things when you think about solvents is that's not really like an innovation category. Let's be honest. That's really a commodity category. And the mindset of thinking that I had behind it is what happens if you could actually decommoditize a commodity, right? And that's really what we've gone about doing, which is to take something that's core to our portfolio. So that's a core product that everyone's gonna use. It's kind of like you know, bred during a storm, right? Everyone's going to get it, right? Solvents are one of those things that everyone's going to be using regardless. And so if that's core to the portfolio, what could we do to differentiate that? And this is where we use that learning that we had from 2013 about the idea, the base idea, but change the application to make it so you could change something that wasn't necessarily, you know, highly hazardous. It didn't have a lot of other Flags to it and bring in a new idea using this bio-based approach. And in certain applications, we're looking at using like waste from the whiskey manufacturing process. So using biomass waste, right, as the raw material. You connect people in a totally different way with that story. It's pretty remarkable, but it's really about being novel in our ideation of how do we think about things like food chain disruption, right? And not taking away from that, the requirements of agriculture. agriculture and the the environmental footprint of that and can we just be more more clever with the raw material sources that we use to then deliver these products that have really high specifications and standards that our customers need because ultimately they're going to applications that are used to deliver medicines, therapies and treatments. Russ Fordyce (08:55): Yeah, and these are these are solvents going into machines that are saving people's lives. These are, you know, highly, you know, specified, you know, products. the thing that interests me is, you know, this corner of the lab, so to speak, has really been underserved. Did it take did it need that innovation to kind of break through? And and you talk about time. Was that really in the time of the investment? Was that really kind of why it was so underserved by the kind of sustainability efforts until now? Jeffrey Whitford (09:25): Yeah, I think one of the things is when you're in more complicated spaces, it's easy for people to just say, no, that's not really applicable here, right? We just need to keep doing what we're doing. And I've I've been at the company now twenty two years and in this role in various forms, right, for eighteen years. And I can tell you since early on in my journey, you know, I was always kind of chipping away at the wall of people keeping me out from different things. and you Over time I kind of wear people down, right? And and I learn with each one of the things, each one of the walls I run into, I am learning and adjusting of how I approach it because you know at first it was like, can I get a commercial person to like let me go with them to talk to customers just to see if this resonates? And then, you know, once we kind of make headway on that, I've got customer feedback that I can t go take and work with product management teams. And so then I go to their doors. And you know, it takes me a while to find my place in there. but then I you know, pitch an idea. Like, I'm like, how about this? Right. And here's the reason why this would work. And this is why it could, you know, separate or differentiate what your product is in the marketplace. And, you know, that process takes time to get people on board with it. Cause once again, most people just like to continue doing what they're doing. I understand why, right? Like why, why break it if it doesn't need to be broken? But sometimes breaking it and and putting it together in a different way makes it more resilient. And I think that's the process that we've seen. and what I can tell you with this this product, so the biobased acetonitrile as an example, one of our most successful launches of a new product, right? The the attention garnered for it, for something to be honest, that isn't that exciting. Like the bio-based piece of it is exciting, but otherwise it's kind of like a snoozer, to be honest. Like, let's call it what it is. It's not like we transformed something. completely different. But there was enough differentiation that we caught people's attention with it. And I've had multiple experiences. We just had an event with our board of partners and supervisors and one of our customers. And you know it was a moment where I momentarily kind of lost my breath because I was like, boy, this could go really bad. But we had a professor talking about her students using this material. And you know, she gave us the perspective that they got it in and they were like, sure this'll work in HPLC. That's n you know, no biggie. But we're not sure it's gonna work in some really difficult applications. And I'm sitting there with like, you know, really important people and I'm like, my gosh, like they're gonna they're gonna tell us it didn't work and like this is gonna be a failure and so They've got five students who are doing their PhD thesis. So, like, there's a lot on the line. This isn't just like, you know, fun time with our Play-Doh and Markers. Like, it's lit it's legit. This is getting published. And they talk about these really specific reactions that if any impurity existed, they would they would find it. And she said, you know, we tried to break it. We intentionally tried to go in and break it. And I'm like sweating bullets at this point. And then she says, but we couldn't find it. Right. It worked in all of the applications. And I think that's the piece that is ultimately when you take that back to the business, right? You've got people who are now saying, Wow, that thing that Millipore Sigma did, totally different. That's unique. That is giving us a totally different way to look at this. We're bringing value in a different way. I had one of my colleagues stop me in an airport. We ran into each other and he said to me, He was like, You know, I thought there was no way. you are gonna succeed at what you're trying to do with this solvents thing. And this was it, this was years ago. And it was like it's remarkable to see what has happened. And I think that's the journey with the product managers that like once they see it, now we are no longer like with that team. We are no longer pushing them to like figure out where to branch out and expand to. In fact, we are at times kind of like pulling a little bit back to be like, okay, I like, I like the spirit the energy, but let's reframe a couple of these things. But that's really, I think, when you know you've tilted the scales when people take it up and own it themselves. And we are just a catalyst, a booster, an advocate. And I think that's really what you see across our portfolio of work that we've done is this transition that has happened with people, that the ownership transfers, it's not just a sustainability thing anymore. It's just how we do business. And that for me is probably one of the most remarkable achievements. Russ Fordyce (14:00): Yeah, and I think what's really interesting is the you've this approach, most a lot of scientific approaches are change something small and it's a new product, right? We see this in the pharma industry all the time, right? It because of patents and everything else, it's you know, you make a slight change and it reacts slightly different. You went the other angle of innovating new with these bio kind of identical. They really give this identical performance. And that's really something that if you think about it in the machines that you're talking about. They've been using these same solvents for decades or whatever. And now you're proposing to bring a bio-based thing in there that performs identically. That sounds really hard to achieve. You know, you know, you I mean, you're talking about using whiskey barrels or or whiskey byproducts, which I want to hear more about, and trying to make it, you know, the equivalent of a you know a petro based product with you know all sorts of problems. Jeffrey Whitford (14:43): You're not wrong. One hundred percent wrong. Yeah, it's it's one of those things where like you you set that up correctly, right? You've got people who are looking for consistency. They want constant, right? And here I am rolling into town with change, right? Change on the agenda. Like I've already set myself up for challenges and potential failure. It's super like super easy for that to be the case. and this was also part of lone learning though, is like, okay, well, if that is the challenge, how do we make the challenge less like make the hurdle lower? So that we can actually clear it and get over it. And you know, things that we've learned is like, well, when people publish them with the material and showcase that it can happen, well, then you've basically laid out a breadcrumb trail for people, right? To say, wait a minute, somebody published on that, they showed it can be done, right? And that's one step. So we've learned along the way how to do this more effectively, more efficiently. Not that it's like without friction, that definitely still exists. But I think that's the piece of it is understanding what is something that maybe is we can't overcome, right? And so maybe we then pivot away from that. But then continuing to try to figure out the ways that we can break through, over, around, under, you know, whatever it is. But this is a good example of that of when we were clear with the specifications, what we were trying to achieve, the technical requirements. You know, people are also up for a challenge, right? And our product management team and our internal green chemistry teams were like, okay, like let's go to work and figure this out. And they were able to. And then we saw the sequence of things happening, and then it becomes kind of a self-reinforcing wheel. So as more people publish, there's more examples out there. We're continuing to keep the ear to the ground on feedback from a customer standpoint, and we continue to just get strong feedback, right? And this is once again, it's a reinforcing cycle because then you start looking at economics. Ultimately, these materials are produced at a smaller scale than traditional fossil fuel-based materials, which means price points are higher. Ultimately, our goal is not to get a green premium out of these things, but just to make it the norm. I want to disrupt the industry to change the way it's being done. So you do that by the market signals. The market signals say more production is needed. More production gives you economies of scale and economies that scale give you different purchase prices, which then make the material more accessible. So right, once again, it's a reinforcing wheel. We put all of that picture together to make it so that it's harder for people to say, that doesn't work for me. You know, the price is too much or quality isn't there. We're just really looking at all of these things and saying, okay, we're gonna make the list of the things and we're gonna start checking them off to make sure that that's not something that people can say, that doesn't work for me. Russ Fordyce (17:34): We we see this in technology all the time. We see it you know, as a as a tech marketer of you know, pro even like a chip, a a semiconductor, right? A semi chemiconductor comes to market, it's most expensive at launch. And then it degrades over time. It's and then you know, something comes and replaces it, but that same chip a decade from now will be more expensive to produce because there's very few of them being produced. They're in specialized applications. And so we just need to go through that cycle, right? Of bringing the awareness and stuff to to market on these bio-based products. You this one product was kind of remarkable because you did go for that that identical performance and you really proved it out with the footprint number. how do you go about kind of making sure that that foot number footprint number is, you know, is real and it doesn't sound like marketing? Jeffrey Whitford (18:24): Yeah. Yeah. I one of the things too, and I like to say this is the acknowledgement of where we are with like carbon accounting, right? It is still art and science. We are not fully to the place where it's what's fully science because you've got to think about the supply chain and how you have all the people in that supply chain accurately giving you numbers and feedback and we're doing the right things. So I think, you know, I acknowledge there's always gonna be room room for improvement and and And adjustments that are going to be made. And we're going to continue to work because that transparency is critically important. One of the things that I certainly know is that my job is predicated on trust. And the second that I lose trust, 18 years of my life can get erased really quickly. And so we can't take shortcuts on that. So we try to work towards clear transparency, things like life cycle assessments when applicable. I think, you know, we have some really interesting discussions on. LCAs, right? They take a lot of time and money. And as as much as I would love to believe that AI is just going to sort that out, I look at the complexity and what happens there, and data quality becomes an issue. So I don't care how efficient AI can get. If you still have bad data to start you off on, you're off on the wrong foot. But it's the continued refinement and understanding of the, I would say, weaknesses in the system that help us make sure that we strengthen the approach and really give clear footnotes when something we don't have all the information, so that we give people the right frame of reference, but ultimately perfection shouldn't be in the way of progress. And I think that's how I like to think about it is like, okay, let's acknowledge where we're at, but give information with the caveats that exist. But it gets us on the road and starts creating that bench line, that base mark so that we can then work from there and think about the ways that You know, we can work with suppliers, we can work with partners, we can work with our own manufacturing to figure out how we can take it from where it's at right now and continue to reduce it to hopefully we get to the point where those numbers are zero. Russ Fordyce (20:23): Yeah. And and when you when you took the kind of product in its kind of raw form out to the pro you know, out to customers, what did they kind of say to you that you were surprised by? Jeffrey Whitford (20:35): I think the the most surprising thing, well, I I I was never surprised certainly by the questions about is it gonna be equivalent, right? Like is it gonna do the exact same? that I kind of went in expecting to I think I've been surprised by the reaction from customers, of like, this actually does work, right? Like part of me is like, I hope I'm not bringing you something that doesn't work. But you know, you never know. It's science. Some things can happen. We can't, you know, predict all of what happens with biology. but I think the the reaction and then this like I always wonder what is the domino that falls that gets people to be able to adapt to change quicker, right? And so it's things like this, Russ, that I wonder is this the thing that starts people to be able to accept other things, right? Like because they were like, I had a good experience here, so that means next time my friction or or or dissonance with that change is gonna be lower or less. So I think that's the piece that I've kind of answer's not clear yet, but I'm waiting to see how that how that plays out because I think that's where the the biggest opportunity comes because that's unfortunately what we need is the ability to adopt and accept more change in how we do science because that's going to be the transformative kind of component to what the future looks like for medicines and and therapies and treatments. Russ Fordyce (22:04): Yeah, it's it's been amazing to see the kind of the corporate shift into the sustainability kind of culture because it's hit it's hit every aspect, as far as I can tell, every aspect of almost every large corporation. I just remembering back, you know, selling telecom and technology stuff, it went from not even, you know, are you doing anything with sustainability to, you know, CIOs and and CEOs asking you for how are you going to reduce my carbon footprint? which device is going to reduce the my carbon footprint the most because they know ultimately, A, it's good for, you know, for the earth, but B, it's good for business. It's going to end up being cheaper for them, especially when you're talking about these energy consuming technology companies. you talked earlier about sitting in on kind of some of those strategic meetings and sales pitches with strategic accounts. What's changed in the room now with kind of some of these successes and some of these kind of relationships kind of going well. Jeffrey Whitford (22:59): Yeah, so one of the things and I spend a lot of my time with customers. I think people are surprised with the amount of time I spend with customers. but that is really a critical component to our strategy of how we make it work within our organization. We are certainly, as our CEO likes to say, customer, customer, customer. That is the focus and really thinking about that. So it gives me a different perspective when I engage with our with our colleagues about how we are talking about portfolio choices and what we're doing with the portfolio. And so I think one of the things that I find that I have less of a challenge with is getting a seat at the table. That is now significantly easier because we are really grounded in customer feedback. And one of the things that we also know from a lot of our customers, they're lost. They don't know exactly what to be able to do. Once again, you're talking about really complicated processes. But I think because of things that we have done from a market perspective, like this product, right, and and certainly the recognition that we've received for it, we've established a position as a leader within the marketplace for being able to drive sustainability. And sometimes, right, they don't even have to do anything, right? They're just benefiting from it. And that's the piece that I go back to our internal teams and say, you know what, whether or not they're ready for it. we can message and give them clarity and data on the benefits that are happening because of the choices that you take. And so I think that's what you start to see is now where, you know, once again I was kind of like begging people to listen. Now we're trying to just like keep up, right? We are we are sprinting to to hold on by like the coattails as our teams are really accelerating on sustainability integration into their product portfolios, into processes, service offerings, and that's a fantastic place to be. Russ Fordyce (24:53): Well, I know at the company there's that chart, right? There's the the bio revenue from biofeed, you know, bio-based products and revenue from carbon-based products or or petroleum-based products. And those lines are crossing at some point. you don't know when, right? We saw this, we see it in tech a lot of those lines crossing. A new technology overtakes. So it's gonna take take over. And it is this balance of of supply and demand, really. And it's really a supply. question on your side with all the renew renewable feedstocks that you've got to start to scale and and get make sure that they're delivering the consistent quality and supply. How have you tried to even start to manage that as as these numbers do ramp up and as the customers say, I need more? Jeffrey Whitford (25:40): Yeah. So one of the things that we frequently heard from like sourcing teams, it's like, we can't do that. There that doesn't exist. Really? Does it? I and so, you know, initially, just out of curiosity, our teams would go on hunts, right? We would see what we could find in the market and you know, we'd find things here and there. And then we'd bring them back to our sourcing teams. And, you know, our sourcing teams have so much to do. So I get it. This is not a like You guys weren't doing your jobs. This is like a you've got a lot on your plate, and we're asking you for something different. But what's also changed in that relationship now is like in supplier days that we have. Sustainability is an integrated component of those supplier days. So now we're able to make the ask to suppliers. They're hearing it directly from us. And guess what happens when you start asking for solutions? They magically start showing up, right? And and I think that's the beauty of what's happening is where. Russ Fordyce (26:28): You start getting them. Yeah. Jeffrey Whitford (26:35): You know, the guidance that I've, you know, been given over time is like we need you to not make sustainability this like nice project that happened over here or over there, but how do you make it systematic within the organization? And so that means you have to find each of these levers that you're able to turn to be able to facilitate kind of consistent engagement. I think that's what we've kind of systematically done is gone through the business. To identify these places. And then, you know, sometimes it takes a while in that relationship to build the trust, to build the confidence that what we're gonna do is align with what they're doing, but then have something that differentiates that brings the sustainability component. But that's a good example where now we're out scouting and finding a whole bunch of things to create a competitive advantage in the marketplace and to bring unique materials to the market that meet customers' ask or actually are ahead of customers ask, right? But we're getting them ready because customers are saying to us, we need help. And so we're the ones coming to them with the solutions to say, you can use this, you can use that, you can use that. Sometimes we overwhelm them because we've got too many options for them. So it's really working to see where they are from a maturity standpoint to be able to absorb these these technology solutions, these sustainability opportunities. And then we can work with them to get them slated into their pipelines. So they've got those those solutions baked into what is this next generation of of molecules and and treatments and therapies and medicines that are coming. Russ Fordyce (28:03): Yeah, and it's I mean, these are highly regulated industries. I can't even imagine just, you know, trying to get into these regulated labs is is a challenge. You you've been at this for eighteen years, twenty years at the company. The company's been 300 plus. So this is not new to them, but you've in they've invested a a significant amount of effort in your time at least into this. And now you've been elevated to this chief sustainability role. You're gonna be over the three divisions. If If you were talking to another CEO or another founder that takes, you know, one principle from this launch away, what would it be? Jeffrey Whitford (28:43): one principle, that's the tricky part. you know, ultimately it's your product portfolio that's gonna be, I think for most people, that's gonna be where the impact sits, right? For us, it's significantly focused there. It's fifty-seven, fifty-eight percent of our footprint sits within the product portfolio. and it takes it takes resolve to go after that and do it. and I think that's the place is you just have to start somewhere. And you know, if you decide not to start in your product portfolio, but you s decide to start sourcing renewable electricity or installing heat pumps, you just have to start. and then as you start making, you know, success out of those things, you build momentum and you find the other places where you can naturally expand. So it really is just start somewhere, but make sure you do it and quantify the impact because that's the piece that for us has been i it we started but we quantified it to show why it made business sense for us to do it. And that's been kind of a a repeatable success for us that has just allowed us to kind of continue expanding the portfolio of impact. Russ Fordyce (29:48): Yeah, it's it's funny how how much these large companies are run like a bank. You know, it is if you can show us the you know the revenue benefit or cost reduction, we'll do just about anything. it it is really kind of amazing. well, you know, Jeffrey, this has been just Amazing to see the journey. and to hear kind of how you did it was really special too, just of kind of the overall investment of time and effort and the and the belief of the company to elevate you all the way to CSO and and is really astounding. And congratulations again on the award, but and on the promotion. This is it's really great. So congratulations.