Thirty years in, the Green Chemistry Challenge Awards demonstrate that industry, small businesses, and academic researchers can and are making real progress in reducing hazards, improving efficiency, and delivering economic and environmental impact. Since 1996 when the awards began, there have been different economic challenges, a global pandemic, shifts in government, national crises, and new sustainability challenges. Yet innovations continue to be submitted and honored through this prestigious awards program—a sure sign that green chemistry makes sense—not just environmentally, but also economically.
This year, the American Chemical Society was pleased to honor six new awardees at a ceremony at the beautiful National Academy of Sciences building in Washington, DC. The Space Force Honor Guard presented colors and a vocalist from the U.S. Navy band sang the National Anthem. ACS COO, LaTrease Garrison, and ACS Director of Sustainable Development, Adelina Voutchkova, gave welcome remarks. Paul Anastas, who originally proposed and got approval for the awards program back in 1996 while at the EPA, delivered keynote remarks. Edmond Lam, ACS Green Chemistry Institute Assistant Director, moderated the ceremony.
New this year, we were able to film each winner’s short presentation and have made available clips below where a representative of each team describes their technologies. The winners will be presenting their technologies in full at the 2026 Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference in San Antonio, Texas next June.
2026 Nomination Process
Nominations for the 2026 Green Chemistry Challenge Awards are opening by October 1 and will close January 31, 2026. Several changes to the awards program will be announced—including new categories—and interested parties are encouraged to register for an informational webinar on September 30 at 1 p.m. ET to find out more. The American Chemical Society has partnered with the EPA for many years on this awards program and is currently running the program in its entirety for 2026. Any questions should be addressed to gciawards@acs.org.
2025 Green Chemistry Challenge Award Winners
Academic category. Prof. Keary M. Engle - The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. Air-Stable Nickel(0) for Catalytic Coupling Reactions
https://youtu.be/MhCtGWADuXs
In this video, Prof. Engle describes his research developing a new class of air-stable nickel catalysts that efficiently convert simple feedstocks into complex molecules. He acknowledges his team’s partnership with Bristol-Meyers Squibb.
Focus Area 1: Greener Synthetic Pathways category. Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, New Jersey. A landmark process for the commercial manufacture of islatravir via a nine-enzyme biocatalytic cascade
https://youtu.be/AKPSRjRxNBM
In this video, Kevin Maloney, Executive Director and Head of Process Chemistry at Merck, summarizes their achievement using an enzymatic cascade for commercial API that significantly reduces chemical waste produced. Merck acknowledges their colleagues at Codexis who worked on the protein engineering aspects.
Focus Area 2: Chemical and Process Design for Circularity category. Pure Lithium Corporation, Charlestown, Massachusetts. Closed-Loop & Green Manufacture of Lithium-Metal Batteries from Domestic Brines
https://youtu.be/NKlQMXXJVG0
In this video, Emilie Bodoin, CEO of Pure Lithium, describes their Brine to Battery™ method, which produces 99.9% pure battery-ready lithium-metal anodes in one step using electrodeposition technology from real-world brines.
Focus Area 3: Design of Safer and Degradable Chemicals category. Cross Plains Solutions, LLC., Dalton, Georgia. SoyFoam™: A Farm to Fire Solution
https://youtu.be/J3vP-KSg8s8
Alan Snipes, CEO of Cross Plains Solutions discusses the innovation road for SoyFoam™, a fire-suppression foam consisting of defatted soybean meal and biobased ingredients that can extinguish Class A and Class B fires.
Small Business category. Novaphos Inc., Fort Meade, Florida. Reprocessing of Phosphogypsum
https://youtu.be/t4m2WfRkHRU
In this video, Tim Cotton, CEO of Novaphos discusses their thermal process to recover and reuse sulfur from phosphogypsum, a waste by-product generated during phosphoric acid production.
Climate Change category. Future Origins, San Diego, California. Commercializing deforestation-free, low-Greenhouse Gas (GHG) drop-in replacements for widely-used ingredients traditionally made from palm kernel oil (PKO)
https://youtu.be/0T5-5arcapE
In this video, Steve Weiss, Strategy Advisor for Future Origins, discusses their single-step, whole-cell fermentation process to produce C12/C14 fatty alcohols (FALC) from renewable plant-derived sugars.
