LCA in Green Chemistry: a new subject area and call for papers

Abstract

Chemicals surround us in all our daily activities. There is practically no facet in material life—transportation, communication, clothing, shelter, and office—in which chemistry does not play an important role, by supplying either consumer products or services. The development of the chemical industry in the past century resulted in huge advances, such as the development of effective drugs to cure diseases or the production of plant protection products and fertilizers that have increased the world's food supply. In spite of this, chemistry and its industry is often viewed by the general public as causing more harm than good (Lancaster 2002). Indeed, the manufacture, use, and disposal of chemicals consume large amounts of resources and originate emissions of pollutants to all environmental compartments. Given that the global demand for chemicals is expected to increase faster than the world's population and GDP (OECD 2001), there is a need for a shift towards a more efficient and sustainable chemistry. The concept of Green Chemistry (GC) was coined by the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) in the early 1990s and can be briefly defined as the use of chemistry for pollution prevention. Anastas et al. (2000) later defined it as “the design of chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use and generation of hazardous substances.” The term “hazard” in this definition was meant to include the full range of threats to human health and the environment, such as physical hazards, toxicity, climate change, and resource depletion (Anastas and Lankey 2000). In order to make this concept operational, the USEPA developed a set of 12 guiding principles (Table 1). These principles constitute the backbone of GC and a universal code of practice for the eco-design of chemicals and chemical processes.