Green Chemistry In The News

Green Chemistry in the News

Pure Chemistry

by Laura Wright Treadway.

"...Andrewjeski is one of a growing number of students learning to think differently about the safety and sustainability of the molecules that make up our lives. Over the past decade, colleges and universities across the country have begun to offer courses in green chemistry, some even awarding Ph.D.’s in the field. But whereas other schools focus on teaching the principles of green chemistry exclusively to chemists, Berkeley intends to do something more. The idea here is that the best way to make chemistry sustainable is to bring together the chemists who will invent new molecules with the biologists who will unravel their toxicological effects, the future business. ..."

Taken from post on Onearth.org.

What is your take on this direction? How does Gordon rate on this?

State of Green Business 2011

Infusing Sustainability Into the EPA's Mission

By Jonathan Bardelline

"SAN FRANCISCO, CA—For Paul Anastas, assistant administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, innovation trumps incremental improvements. While the EPA has been maintaining its role of, well, environmental protection, a more important aspect it's taken on has been to drive innovation, both within its ranks and through partnerships with the business, academic and environmental communities.

One major theme in the agency, he said, is to approach problems with sustainability and innovation in mind. "How do we rethink what it is we're trying to accomplish?"

Anastas cautioned against against creating goals and programs based solely on metrics, warning that metrics can lead companies and groups to focus on easily-quantifiable issues instead of more important, but less-easily-measured, issues like equity, wellness and health.

Anastas was speaking at State of Green Business 2011 forum. The State of Green Business Report 2011 examines trends in corporate sustainability, exploring the impact and rate of the greening of business. The accompanying Forums offer a hands-on experience to learn about the latest in corporate sustainability from leading experts in the business world."

More on this can be found at the GreenBiz website.

Warner, Benyus Discuss the Union of Green Chemistry, Biomimicry

By Jonathan Bardelline
Published October 19, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Green chemistry and biomimicry are coming together to make safer and smarter products and processes.

"John Warner, co-founder of the Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry and Beyond Benign, and Janine Benyus, co-founder of the Biomimicry Guild and Biomimicry Institute, spoke about what they've been doing in their separate spaces and how they are now working together at today's GreenBiz Innovation Forum.

One big barrier green chemistry has been facing is education. "If you look at any university on the planet...you will find that you never have a course in toxicology," Warner said. India and China, though, have recently made stronger efforts than the U.S. to support green chemistry research and education. "Emerging markets are realizing the competitive advantage in sustainability and reduced toxicity," he said.

Education is another issue with biomimicry, since it too, isn't taught widely, and it is based on thinking about problems differently. When a company wants helps with packaging, the biomimicry response is, "How does nature contain fluid?" "We go to the level of function," Benyus said."

Read more...

Industrial Green—Slowly, Green Chemistry is Transforming How We Make Stuff

RACINE—"The point about the bottles that Mick Wynhoff set up on the conference table was what one couldn't see.

There was no color. Each bottle was filled with a different but uniformly clear cleaning liquid. The absence of color is the visible evidence of a trend moving through industry at companies as large as SC Johnson and as small as Wynhoff's company, Pacific Sands.

The trend is "green chemistry." It is the process of changing how we make stuff by using ingredients that are sustainably made, processes that generate the smallest amount of waste and packaging that requires the least amount of material.

Small chemistry

The point about the absence of color in the products of Pacific Sands, 1509 Rapids Drive, is that color isn't necessary for the performance of the product, said Jack Hagarty, one of the company's chemists. At first the idea was to use different colors so customers could easily pick the right product from the shelf, he said. But there was a better idea: put the color on the bottle and eliminate the unnecessary dyes..."

Read the whole article at The Journal Times.

Cancer and green chemistry

By Teresa Heinz Kerry, Terry Collins and John Warner

"THE PRESIDENT’S Cancer Panel recently issued a stunning report on the role of environmental factors in causing cancer. For those wondering why America has yet to win the war against cancer, the panel minces no words: 'The true burden of environmentally induced cancers has been grossly underestimated.’' If you ignore the cause, how can you prevent cancer and really win the war? ..."

"Among its many recommendations, we were especially encouraged to find this: ‘Green chemistry’ initiatives and research . . . should be pursued and supported more aggressively. . .’ Green chemistry offers a path forward that leads both to a healthier America and a wave of positive chemical innovations that can strengthen our economy..."

Read the whole editorial on the Boston.com site.

Download the Presidents Cancer Panel report "Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk" from the National Cancer Institute.

Gordon College has collaborations with both Terry Collins and John Warner in the area of Green Chemistry.

California's Green Chemistry Initiative

Draft Regulation for Safer Consumer Products

"The Green Chemistry Draft Regulation for Safer Consumer Products is now available for review and comment. This draft regulation is built on the foundation outlined in the previously released Conceptual Flowchart and Outline for Draft Regulation. The draft regulation specifies the processes for DTSC (Department of Toxic Substances Control) to scientifically and systematically identify and prioritize chemicals and consumer products, for manufacturers to conduct alternatives assessments, and for DTSC to impose regulatory responses for alternatives selected by manufacturers. The regulation reflects nearly 16 months of collaboration with stakeholders,"

Download the draft regulation Safer Consumer Products Alternatives.

Green Chemistry: Scientists Devise New "Benign by Design" Drugs, Paints, Pesticides and More

Chemists are usually asked to invent a solution, but without considering hazardous by-products. Green chemists now are doing both with success, but will it take regulations to enforce the approach broadly?

"What will it take for green chemistry to be more than the proverbial drop in the bucket, a bucket full of toxic sludge? Some experts believe that the answer is government intervention..."

By Emily Laber-Warren. The full article can be found at the Scientific American on-line edition.

iSUSTAIN™ Alliance Launched to Promote Green Chemistry Awareness

SAN FRANCISCO—(BUSINESS WIRE)--Beyond Benign Foundation, Cytec Industries Inc. and Sopheon announced today that they have formed the iSUSTAIN Alliance to promote Green Chemistry awareness in the global chemical industry.

“Cytec has been seeking ways to become more sustainable on many fronts including energy, packaging, safety and product design. We use the iSUSTAIN product and process design tool to assist in these sustainability efforts”

The alliance has launched a website, www.isustain.com, which allows chemical manufacturers and users to track their progress in developing greener products over time. They will be able to assess the sustainability of new products using a systematic approach, which is both comprehensive and simple, to help shape the formulation of these products. The site allows companies to test their green product attributes and give each product an iSUSTAIN Green Chemistry Index rating which will be independently verifiable through a certification process.

The academic community will be able to use the iSUSTAIN application free of charge, while company users will pay a small subscription fee. An advisory board for the Alliance will be established in the coming months, which will include representation from the website’s user community.

“As a non-profit organization dedicated to green chemistry education, we are excited to be involved with the iSUSTAIN Alliance. This new tool is long overdue and will be invaluable not only to industrial chemists designing safer processes and products, but also as a resource for students, educators and the designers of the next generation of molecules and materials,” said John C. Warner, President of Beyond Benign and the President and Chief Technology Officer of the Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry.

Read the full report
March 22, 2010

Glitzy Google Gathering Launches Green-Product Institute

"The Green Products Innovation Institute, formally announced at Google corporate headquarters here, builds on a 2008 California state law that seeks to establish the nation's first 'green chemistry' program."

By Colin Sullivan of Greenwire. The full article can be found at The New York Times site.

Learn more about the Green Products Innovation Institute (GPII).

Hot Academic Jobs

"Green chemistry focuses on eliminating the use of toxic chemicals in chemistry without stifling scientific progress...As it grows in importance, more institutions are expected to offer master's degrees and doctorates."

The full article can be found at the The Chronicle of Higher Education site.