Joining the UN Global Compact and Continuing our Commitment to Sustainability

As part of Twist’s ongoing commitment to positive environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices, we have joined the United Nations (UN) Global Compact.

The UN Global Compact is the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative with more than 15,000 companies and 3,800 non-business signatories based in over 160 countries. Companies are called to align their operations and strategies with the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact, which fall under the areas of human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption.

Member companies are also called to take action in support of UN goals and issues embodied in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). There are 17 SDGs, all connected to the Ten Principles. We have initially identified four SDGs that align closely with our mission at Twist to redefine the future of sustainability, food security, and healthcare with synthetic DNA. These SDGs include zero hunger, good health and well-being, gender equality, and responsible consumption and production.

Zero Hunger

The zero hunger SDG focuses on achieving food security, improving nutrition and promoting sustainable agriculture. Using synthetic DNA, Twist’s customers engineer crops to be resistant to pests, adapt to extreme weather conditions and grow independent of fertilizer. Making plants more durable and reducing the need for pollutants enables sustainability and could provide greater and continued access to nutritious foods by reducing the number of crops lost to disease and weather conditions.

Good Health and Well-being

Limiting reliance on pesticides reduces the amount of pollutants that enter into the environment, making communities healthier places to live. Synthetic DNA can also be used to replace plastic with proteins, further reducing pollutants. Scientists can use synthetic DNA to develop therapeutics as well as in next-generation sequencing applications to detect and monitor diseases. When threats to public health such as COVID arise, synthetic DNA can be used to create positive controls used to validate and confirm that tests are working as intended.

Gender Equality

At Twist, we’re building a company without a glass ceiling where we empower employees of all gender identities. 39% of our executive team identify as women and 41% of our total workforce is made up of women. 61% of Twist employees in the US identify as people of color.

Responsible Consumption and Production

At Twist, we reduce waste wherever possible. We have recycling programs in place in our labs and in 2022, we received the Kimberly-Clark Greenovation Award for diverting over 3.2 tons of gloves away from landfills in 2021 through our glove recycling program. Our platform itself miniaturizes the chemical reaction to create DNA, reducing the amount of reagents used by 99.8% compared to legacy approaches. We also produce exactly the amount of DNA needed so there is no need to discard excess oligonucleotides in the gene synthesis process.

Sustainability isn’t just a goal at Twist. It is woven through our technology, spaces and culture and not only makes for a better planet, but also a better business. It is also the vision upon which the company was founded.

To learn more about sustainability and ESG at Twist, visit: https://www.twistbioscience.com/company/esg.