Reducing our footprint with green chemistry

 Stepping on the biological soil crust in the deserts of southeast Utah can crush and kill the cyanobacteria, lichen, and moss that retain water, fix nitrogen, and support most of the life in that area. It can take 50 years to develop the mature crust, so humans must step with care

This year’s Chemists Celebrate Earth Week theme of “Reducing Our Footprint with Chemistry” recognizes that chemists make our own unique footprint on the world, and we have a professional responsibility to reduce the size and effect of that footprint to ensure that our world is healthy and sustainable

Chemists have a long history of solving problems to improve society, and our creativity empowers us to find the technological solutions needed to meet the challenges of climate change, hunger, sickness, and many others

Green chemistry can play a key role in helping society reduce its footprint through designing products and processes that are not harmful to human health and the environment. So, we should work toward pursuing every project using only environmentally friendly starting materials and processes

The ideal long-term strategy is to train chemists in green chemistry principles and practices from the beginning of their education rather than requiring every chemist to be retrained later in their careers. These green chemistry natives will always solve problems by reaching into their green chemistry toolboxes for solutions, thus making the whole system more efficient.

The integration of green chemistry into the undergraduate curriculum has been slowed, in part, by a shortage of curricular resources. The American Chemical Society Green Chemistry Institute is filling this resource gap by developing modules that present fundamental general and organic chemistry topics in the context of green chemistry, systems thinking, and the United Nations sustainable development goals. Teams of subject matter experts are designing these modules and will test them with their own classes before these new resources are freely available online. You can learn more about this initiative by visiting the project website at

https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/greenchemistry/students-educators/education-roadmap.html.

Chemists need to consider the life cycle of a product: Where do the starting materials come from? How much energy is consumed by the process? What types and quantities of solvents are used? In addition, chemists and engineers need to take into account consequences beyond the chemistry building or the boundary of the manufacturing facility, such as contributions to climate change, fate of the product in the environment, and impacts on the local community

The global travel restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 6% in 2020, according to United Nations estimates. Unfortunately, the increased use of disposable masks, personal protective equipment (PPE), takeout containers from restaurants, and plastic to package our online orders has increased both micro- and macroplastics in the environment, substantially enlarging our global footprint in this area.

Chemists, especially those who are trained in green chemistry principles, can play a key role in addressing health and safety challenges while balancing continuing efforts to reduce our footprint on the environment

Laura E. Pence, chair, ACS Green Chemistry Institute Advisory Board

Ref: cen.acs.org

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