By Mary Kirchhoff, Ph.D., Director, ACS Green Chemistry Institute

For those of you old enough to remember Bob Hope, “Thanks for the Memories” was his signature song, and the title seems appropriate as I write my last column as GCI Director.  I began my 20-year career at ACS with the Green Chemistry Institute and am pleased to wrap up my time at ACS with GCI as I prepare to retire at the end of the year.

20 Years of Scientific Breakthroughs That Both Change Patients’ Lives and Sustain a Healthy Planet

By Juan Colberg, Seda Arat, Maria Gonzalez Esguevillas, Scott France, Kailey Huot, Rajesh Kumar, Daniel Laity, Manjinder Lall, Johnny Lee, Javier Magano, Jared Piper, Paul Richardson, Philipp Roosen, Rebecca Watson.

One definition for Green Chemistry (GC) is the design of chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use or generation of hazardous substances. Pfizer has embraced this concept and applied it across the life cycle of its products, facilitating process design, manufacturing, and utilization. Green chemistry principles provide a unique framework to guide process development, which ultimately leads to an optimal chemical process from both an environmental and economic perspective.

By Frank Roschangar, Boehringer Ingelheim

More than ever before, pharmaceutical companies are expected to assess the impact of their sustainable development achievements.  However, the lack of a consistent metric system impedes the objective quantification and comparability of key sustainability indicators.  One of those indicators is Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) manufacturing waste, which aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12—Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.

Eight research groups received a total of $300,000 in green chemistry funding from the ACS Green Chemistry Institute Pharmaceutical Roundtable (GCIPR) this fall. The 2021 funded research projects cover a variety of areas, including flow chemistry, greener peptide synthesis, medicinal chemistry, biocatalysis and others. New Request for Proposals in research areas that are important to the pharmaceutical industry are issued each spring. In total, the ACS GCIPR grant program has distributed over $3 million in green chemistry research funding since its inception. To find out more about the program, please visit: https://www.acsgcipr.org/advancing-research/

The 2021 awardees, who each receive $50,000 in research support, are:

A recording of the September 22, 2021, webinar hosted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to educate stakeholders on the Green Chemistry Challenge Awards and the nomination process is now available. The webinar reviewed the history of the awards, the categories within the awards, eligibility requirements, and what is needed to submit a nomination.

The 2020-2021 school year was not an easy one by any means! However, many ACS Student Chapters were able to find ways to continue their activities—and 27 succeeded in still meeting the criteria to receive a Green Chemistry Award. Winning chapters included 21 chapters from the U.S. and Puerto Rico and 6 international student chapters from Nigeria, the U.K., Mexico, India and Costa Rica.

To encourage ACS members to get involved in sustainability policy issues, two ACS committees are collaborating to create a new ACS award. The ACS Committees on Environmental Improvement (CEI) and Chemistry & Public Affairs (CCPA) created a jointly-administered ACS ChemLuminary Award to encourage local sections and divisions to engage in projects that leverage ACS policy statements connected to sustainability. ACS units have the remainder of 2021 to organize and execute activities that will be eligible for consideration for the 2022 prize. ACS ChemLuminary awards recognize superlative efforts accomplished by ACS local sections, divisions, international chapters, or other ACS units.

“It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land.  Widespread and rapid changes in the atmosphere, cryosphere and biosphere have occurred.”  This is how the current state of the climate was described in last month’s Interg

On June 11, Helen Sneddon, Ph.D., Scientific Team Director in Medicinal Chemistry at GlaxoSmithKline, presented an overview of the ACS Green Chemistry Institute Pharmaceutical Roundtable tools during the 25^th Annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference. A summary of her presentation below provides a quick overview of these free public resources. You can also watch Dr. Sneddon’s complete 20-minute presentation at https://www.acsgcipr.org/tools-for-innovation-in-chemistry.  

The ACS Green Chemistry Institute Oilfield Chemistry Roundtable (OCR) is seeking a one-year R&D commitment to assist the Roundtable’s discovery of friction reducers and high-viscosity friction reducers that are viable alternatives to current polyacrylamide polymers used in hydraulic fracturing.

By Matthew Deinhardt, ACS Green Chemistry Institute

Agilent Technologies shares how they are leading the way in sustainable supply chains and instrument production from a holistic approach.

Agilent, a 2021 Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference Gold Sponsor, provides analytical instruments, software, and services for laboratory workflow, from start to finish. The company focuses its services and products to meet the needs of six key markets: food, environmental and forensics, pharmaceutical, diagnostics, chemical and energy, and research. I recently had a chance to interview Agilent’s Michael Frank, Ph.D., Associate Vice President of Global Marketing within the Liquid Phase Separations Division, to discuss how Agilent is improving and “greening” their processes for a more sustainable ecosystem.

Contributed by Jonathon Moir, Ph.D., Program Manager, Green Chemistry Teaching and Learning Community (GCTLC), Beyond Benign

As the 2021/2022 school year begins and many students have returned to in-person classes across the U.S., effective strategies for teaching and learning in the midst of an ongoing global pandemic remain top of mind amongst educators at all levels, from K-12 through to higher education. A priority remains the ability to network and collaborate with other educators (especially when in-person conferences and meetings remain uncertain), to share best practices and resources, to help support each other amid change, and to find ways to stay engaged across geographic and institutional boundaries.

Learn more about the ACS Green Chemistry Institute student awards. Deadlines begin on October 8, 2021.

Contributed by Christine Aurigemma, Pfizer, San Diego, CA, USA

The “Integration of Greener, Process-Friendly Approaches for Monitoring Reactions for Pharmaceutical End-Game Chemistry” session featured quality speakers from industry and academia, including the Chief Scientific Officer of a chemistry CRO, on a broad spectrum of topics from microfluidics to process analytics at the plant scale. These presentations touched on various green and sustainable tools and techniques for improving process control while reducing waste and were in alignment with the conference theme "Sustainable Production to Advance the Circular Economy."