Lexi Milano: driving change through small actions

Born and raised in a town near Tarrytown, New York, Lexi Milano grew up in a traditional family, surrounded by nature. From a young age, she was taught the power of caring for her surroundings and treasuring the planet. Today, she brings that same awareness and sustainability focus into her daily life and work. Learn more about her story below.

How did you decide to study chemical engineering? 

I was studying to become a physical therapist, but I had taken chemistry in high school and then later in college and loved it. It just made sense to me. So, I ended up shifting careers. During my undergrad, I learned that cosmetics stemmed from chemistry, and right then and there, I knew that was the path I wanted to follow. I ended up choosing engineering and found a program at Manhattan College that offered engineering with cosmetics.

I didn't really think of being a professor or a teacher, I wanted to work in the industry. I knew I wanted to be hands-on in the lab; it’s something I’ve always enjoyed. Even when I was a kid, I used to do experiments in secret. I would take shampoos and products and create concoctions.

Even though neither of my parents is an engineer, when I started working at BASF, I discovered that my grandfather worked for Colgate for many years and was a packaging engineer with a lot of different patents, like screw-on caps for toothpaste. I never met him because he had passed away before I was born. But maybe somehow, engineering is part of our family line.

Where did your interest in sustainability and the environment come from?

Growing up, my family, especially my parents, were very focused on conserving our resources and instilling in us the notion that we only have one planet. We always tried to do things in our home to reduce our carbon footprint and have awareness for the planet, such as composting, thrifting clothes and putting screens in our windows, reducing air conditioning usage and saving energy. 

As a kid, I spent most of my free time outdoors playing in the sand, in our backyard, and in the woods, as we lived down the road from a nature preserve. There were lots of hiking trails and places to spend time outdoors.

When new neighboring houses were developing, they would often cut down wooded areas to build the houses. Over time, fewer forest areas were around, and we also saw more flooding. You could really sense the impact of changing just two acres. Imagine the impact this could have on extensive forests… That reality has definitely had a significant impact on who I am today.  

How did you come to work for BASF and what is your position today?

In my senior year of college, I was looking for summer internships, and a recruiter sent me the job description for a formulation lab technician position for BASF’s personal care business right here in Tarrytown, working with hair, sun and skincare. And I just thought, “Wow, this is my dream job.”  I was able to learn about the different chemistries and their interactions, like surfactants, polymers, and emulsions.

Today my job is slightly different. When I started, I was making formulations for our Personal Care ingredients portfolio and now I test them. I work with different textures of human hair tresses, especially curly and coily hair types. And we have an abundance of different testing instruments. For example, when you pick up a shampoo or conditioner bottle and see the different claims, like 80% strengthening or 24-hour frizz reduction, those claims need to be backed up by data to appear on a bottle. The ingredients that go into each product have claims of their own, and our team collects the data to support those claims. We have different methods of combing, looking at the tensile strength of hair, shine, frizz management, etc. We have a method that we follow, we can look at different ingredients and different product types to see exactly what will provide the best benefits. 

One of our biggest challenges is developing methods that work no matter who the person is or what type of hair they have. Traditionally these methods have been developed on straight hair, but as we move toward more inclusive products, sometimes we have to adjust for different curl patterns.

We want to make sure that our methods are reproducible, irrespective of who is running the tests.

How does sustainability play into your role today?

When we’re defining our methods and running tests, I look at the possibility of reducing the amount of water usage or if we can reuse some of our products. We generally use fresh hair to make sure the claims are supported, but if we are running, for example, proof of principle preliminary experiments, we'll try to reuse hair, so it reduces our waste. 

I strive to incorporate more sustainability focus into our site initiatives as well. I started working on the site sustainability team in 2021, leading the efforts to revamp it and keep different initiatives going.

Today, we have an ongoing clothing drive. We are connected with Green Tree Textile Recycling, a company that takes clothes and, if they're in good condition, gives them to people in need, and if the clothes are not wearable, they’ll take the textiles and recycle them to make new items. Within the past year, we have collected a little over 100 bags of clothes.

We also host repair cafes so people can have their items fixed or sown rather than throwing them out. We also have a pollinator garden, and we consulted with a local environmental group that recommended adding some other plants to even better serve the needs of pollinating species. 

Within the community, we’ve partnered with the Tarrytown Environmental Advisory Council, a local group that organizes events within the community. We’ve helped their invasive vine squad cut down overgrown vines around town and also participated in Earth Day cleanups, picking up trash, participating in yearly eco fairs, Halloween costume swaps, etc.  So we have a broad mix of local initiatives in place, and we’re always looking to further increase our positive impact. 

At BASF, our purpose statement is “We create chemistry for a more sustainable future,” and I have always valued that. I like to see that in some of our ingredients, for example, through upcycling. We've started to push more on sustainable sourcing, as well as producing ingredients using fewer resources as we move toward carbon neutrality and reducing our emissions. On-site at Tarrytown, we're also following this path in different ways, finding ways to reuse equipment and reduce waste.