YOU ARE CURRENTLY VIEWING GREEN
CHEMISTRY:
BACKGROUND
Background to the Green Chemistry movement
Increasing legislation in the UK, EU
and N. America (e.g. REACH, US Pollution Prevention
Act, IPPC: please refer to Regulations section), as
well as NGO-led public pressure, are forcing the chemical
industry to minimise the impacts of its products and
processes on the environment. These are among the strongest
drivers towards a more sustainable and ‘green’
approach. Cost savings are also an important incentive.
The phrase 'green chemistry' has come
to represent a particular stream of activity, largely
led by chemists in industry, US regulatory bodies, and
academics all around the world.
Green Chemistry, in broad terms, involves
the application of chemistry knowledge to design products
and processes in order to reduce or eliminate the use
and generation of hazardous substances. The twelve core
principles spell out objectives, which together form a
highly effective approach for pollution control, as this
approach applies innovative scientific solutions to real-world
environmental situations.
In practice over the last few years,
the emphasis of most green chemistry activity has largely
been on improving large scale chemical industry processes
in respect of the types of raw materials used, the quantity
of releases, and ultimately their efficiency. As is so
often the case, measuring performance against these criteria
has resulted in massive cost savings reported by many
major companies. Reduction in emissions, avoidance of
the use of expensive processes (in energy or chemical
terms) and increase in recycling have made big impacts.
There is a bigger picture. Within
the global context of the 1992 Rio summit, and international
emphasis on sustainable chemistry, various other kinds
of activities are going on. These include:
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Journals and conferences |
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OECD initiatives |
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Discussion on the importance of the REACH proposals,
and the extent to which industry can replace an unacceptable
substance by another without loss of performance |
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Review of methodology: is life cycle analysis essential,
or actually a hindrance to rapid progress? Is it enough
just to try to reduce the number of substances, in
use or on the market, which have hazardous properties? |
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Consideration of the image of the chemical industry
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Key players within the green chemistry
networks recognise that the correct emphasis on process
improvement has somewhat left the discussion of the end
product to one side. This is in part because people see
that as too hard a topic to address. However, from our
knowledge of the scientific tools available, Envision
Chemistry is sure, as many others are, that this can
be done as part of a truly integrated sustainable R and
D programme
Photography courtesy of Emanuel
Lobeck, Kenn Kiser, Crissie Hardy
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