By Christiana Briddell, Communications Portfolio Manager, ACS Green Chemistry Institute
On May 23, a group of scientific leaders gathered at the Nobel Prize Museum to launch the Stockholm Declaration on Chemistry for the Future. (C&EN’s coverage of this event provides a great overview.) The declaration covers five areas where transformative changes are needed to support positive outcomes for society and ecosystems—innovations in chemical design and manufacture that consider impacts across the life cycle; incorporating risk, investment, and measurement models that support sustainability into the chemical enterprise; training and education to include systems-thinking and life-cycle perspectives; transparency and access to chemical data and information; and government policy that promotes sustainable chemistry.
“We have the capabilities to transform the world, and we actually need to do it!” says Paul Anastas, co-creator of the initiative. The Declaration is intended to rally the global chemistry community to put their name in support of this achievable future. The strength of the Declaration is in the people who sign it, and Anastas emphasizes that we need all sorts of people—not just chemists, but also business leaders, policy makers, curricula developers, communicators, etc. “Whatever somebody’s lever is, whatever their area of influence, they should use those levers [to help implement the changes outlined],” says Anastas.
At the GC&E Conference, ACS President Dorothy J. Phillips formally signed the declaration on behalf of ACS, and many other attendees added their names. Now it’s your turn!
We invite you to read the declaration and digitally sign your name.