By Madeline Pandos, ACS Green Chemistry Institute

As school life continued to return to normal in 2022, many ACS Student Chapters took on hosting more activities throughout the year to promote green chemistry ideas. This year the ACS Green Chemistry Insti

It is estimated that only 1-2% of chemists ever venture onto the road less travelled—launching a chemistry start-up (Knauer, 2021). The reason likely lies in the significant commitment and sacrifice associated with starting a new venture. How would you kn

Founded in 1885 and family-owned ever since, Boehringer Ingelheim takes a long-term perspective. Boehringer Ingelheim’s commitment towards a healthier and more sustainable future is firmly anchored in our corporate philosophy since its founding and transl

Eight research groups have received funds from the ACS Green Chemistry Institute Pharmaceutical Roundtable amounting to a total of $350,000. These grants advance key research areas identified by the Roundtable as well as emerging topics with the potential to provide significant sustainability advances.

The ACS Southeastern Regional Meeting (SERMACS) was held in San Juan, Puerto Rico on October 18-22. The program had a strong component of sustainability with a series of six sessions organized and presided by H.N. Cheng, ACS Past President and Juan Colberg, Pfizer. ACS Green Chemistry Institute (GCI) staff, Christiana Briddell and Isamir Martinez, were on site to engage the energized participants from all over the southeast U.S. and Puerto Rico.

By Julian R. Silverman, Assistant Professor, Department of Science and Math, The Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, NY

How can scientists and educators meaningfully connect the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with the Principles of Green Chemistry? This is a question Jessica D’eon and I tackled when we agreed to create a teaching module on stoichiometry for an introductory chemistry course. Our idea was to have students discuss the human health and environmental impacts of incomplete combustion by explaining and exploring reaction efficiency and yield.

By David A. Laviska, Ph.D., ACS Green Chemistry Institute

I have been strongly committed to quality education, the environment, diversity, and improving our world throughout my career. Therefore, it is with profound gratitude (and excitement!) that I step into the role of Portfolio Manager for Green Chemistry and Sustainability in Education here at the ACS Green Chemistry Institute. I started my career as an Environmental Scientist at the U.S. EPA (Region II), working for a bit more than a decade with a team of chemists, biologists, atmospheric scientists, geologists, and engineers to address polluted ecosystems that resulted from what we might call “poor decisions” made throughout the history of the chemical enterprise. Cleaning up after a mess has already been made can be tricky and sometimes, impossible. I then made a big change, returning to graduate school and earning my Ph.D. in organometallic chemistry and catalysis. Along the way, I developed a passion for teaching and green chemistry and decided to direct my energy toward carving out a niche in academia. Now, after a decade of teaching, researching, and innovating in higher education while advocating for green chemistry throughout, I have the privilege of focusing my energy on the development and propagation of educational initiatives at the ACSGCI.

The ACS Office of Research Grants will be accepting proposals for Petroleum Research Fund (PRF) grants to support fundamental research in the petroleum field from noon September 19 to 5 p.m. EDT on October 14, 2022.  Proposals must be directed to fundamental petroleum research including fundamental research related to petroleum-derived materials in one of ten specified subject matter areas.  However, please note that while the PRF Trust imposes certain restrictions, PRF currently funds many topics of current interest in sustainability and green chemistry.  These include, for example, new catalysts and upgrading/utilization of methane and carbon dioxide.  Interested individuals are encouraged to contact a PRF program officer or prfinfo@acs.org for more information regarding areas of supported research.

Contributed by Dr. Mahlet Garedew & Dr. Hanno Erythropel, Center for Green Chemistry & Green Engineering at Yale University

“I’m pregnant!” After receiving the big news, one of the next questions for those working in chemical laboratories is, “Is it safe for me to continue to work in a lab environment?”  These were the same questions that Ph.D. candidate Mary Kate Lane and Postdoc Dr. Mahlet Garedew from the Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering at Yale had when they learned they were expecting. In a broader context, these questions are also relevant in the context of gender equality, as studies show that women scientists leave full-time STEM employment positions much more frequently after the birth of their first child than men.

Learn about the Green Chemistry Commitment, how it evolved, who had signed, and where it's going in the future with Amy Cannon, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Beyond Benign.  

By EPA Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention Deputy Assistant Administrator Jennie Romer

As a sustainability expert, author, and the first-ever Deputy Assistant Administrator for Pollution Prevention at EPA, I’m thrilled to announce the opening of nominations for the 2023 Green Chemistry Challenge Awards. The Green Chemistry Challenge Awards are a way for EPA to bring attention to groundbreaking scientific solutions that are making a positive impact on human health and the environment. 

The ACS Green Chemistry Institute (GCI) will be at ACS Fall 2022 in Chicago—please stop by our booth (533) in the Expo to chat, test your knowledge and win green chemistry swag! The Expo is open Monday and Tuesday from 11 a.m. – 6 p.m., and Wednesday from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. While you are in the Expo, be sure to also stop by the Recharge & Social Media Lounge to tell us how your chemistry connects to one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Participants will be posting short videos to Instagram. More information about the campaign and virtual participation options will be forthcoming!

By Matthew Deinhardt, ACS Green Chemistry Institute

Returning to an in-person, hybrid meeting this year, we were thrilled to have an in-person Student Poster Award Competition again. While presenting at the Poster Session, students’ research was reviewed by judges for outstanding and superior research and effort in green and sustainable chemistry and engineering. Many thanks to our poster judges: Prof. Tova Williams of NC State, Prof. Alan Allgeier of the University of Kansas, and Dr. Daniela Blanco, who is the CEO of Sunthetics. The poster session and reception was sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim with prizes generously provided by The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) and DeGruyter.

Great Chukwudalu Umenweke of the University of Kentucky pictured with judges Pof. Bova and Prof. Allgeier (Photo Credit: Arthur Lemmon)

By Adelina Voutchkova, Director of Sustainable Development, ACS

Adelina VoutchkovaI had the privilege to join the ACS in the role of Director of Sustainable Development in early June, just as the GC&E Conference was getting underway. During my academic career at George Washington University, I built a robust research program focused on catalysis for a circular economy and helped launch a graduate program in Environmental and Green Chemistry, with a keen eye on developing technologies relevant to greener industrial processes and preparing the future workforce in green chemistry.  I am incredibly proud of the patents, publications, research output, and startup spun from our work, but also deeply aware of the obstacles that slow academics’ ability to fuel the needed growth of industrial green chemical processes. Key obstacles include identifying research gaps in industry relevant to different fields, navigating the landscape to commercialize research products, and quantitatively evaluating the relative environmental impact of technologies deemed as “greener”. With the launch of the ACS Office of Sustainability and the Campaign for a Sustainable Future—a $15 million investment from ACS—I saw a compelling opportunity to help address these obstacles and contribute to both the ACS mission and the green chemistry community that has nurtured my career thus far.

Over the last decade, a steady shift towards a more global pharmaceutical supply chain has occurred. Today, a significant portion of API manufacturing is carried out by contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs), many located in Asian countries.

The ACS Green Chemistry Institute Pharmaceutical Roundtable (GCIPR), established in 2005, is a leading partnership between the ACS Green Chemistry Institute and over 40 pharmaceutical and allied companies committed to catalyzing green chemistry and engineering in the industry.