SCIE90011: Sustainability and Biosafety

These vocabulary flashcards cover the core concepts of sustainability, environmental impact drivers, design strategies, and the fundamentals of biosafety and biosecurity in the context of biotech/medtech development.

Sustainability (Environmental Responsibility)

Focuses on resource use (materials, energy, water) and emissions and waste across the life cycle.

Sustainability (Social Responsibility)

Involves safety for workers, patients, and communities, as well as equity and access (e.g., low-resource settings, One Health).

Sustainability (Economic Viability)

Often assessed through TEA (Techno-Economic Assessment), LCA (Life Cycle Assessment), and Social LCA.

Materials and consumables (Impact Driver)

Consumables needed during manufacturing such as media, filters, and solvents; considers fossil, biobased, or recycling origins.

Energy (Impact Driver)

The demand for power during manufacturing, distribution, use, and disposal or recycling.

Water (Impact Driver)

Includes water demand during manufacturing, use, and disposal, as well as water toxicity.

Waste and emissions (Impact Driver)

Emissions during manufacturing, use, and disposal, characterized by their persistence and toxicity.

Avoid / reduce (Design Strategy)

The elimination of unnecessary steps and consumables, and the reduction of energy-intensive unit operations.

Substitute (Design Strategy)

The use of lower-impact materials (e.g., less hazardous solvents, non-animal media) and cleaner energy sources.

Optimise (Design Strategy)

Improving yields and process efficiency to require less input per dose/test and reducing rework or batch failures.

Design for end-of-life

Considering recyclability, degradability, or safer disposal routes, and avoiding materials that complicate waste treatment.

One-Health

An integrated, applied approach that recognizes the close links between human, animal, and environmental health to manage risks across ecosystems.

Equity

The quality of being fair or impartial; ensuring benefits and burdens of sustainable practices are distributed fairly among all people.

Equality

The state or quality of being equal; correspondence in quantity, degree, value, rank, or ability.

Hazard

The inherent potential of an agent or material to cause harm, such as virulence, toxicity, or genetic traits.

Risk

The combination of the likelihood of exposure and the severity of harm.

Biosafety

Protection of people, animals, and the environment from unintentional exposure to biological agents and materials.

Biosecurity

Protection against unauthorised access, misuse, or malicious release of biological agents or materials.

Biorisk Management

The combined practice of biosafety and biosecurity.

Strain design (as a biosafety tool)

Lowering inherent hazard by engineering strains with reduced survival outside process conditions, auxotrophies, or built-in 'kill switches'.

Single-use vs reusable (Environmental Trade-off)

Single-use leads to more solid waste; reusable leads to more water, chemicals, and energy use for cleaning.

Single-use vs reusable (Biosafety Trade-off)

Single-use offers less cross-contamination risk and simpler cleaning validation; reusable requires complex hygiene and validation.