Principles into Practice Setting the Bar for Green Chemistry

We are grateful to Environmental Health Perspectives for implicitly embracing green chemistry as a field with profound connections to the environmental health sciences. We also commend the efforts of Wilson and Schwarzman (2009) to create greater transparency and accountability around chemicals of concern. We take issue, however, with their approach to key scientific concepts and terminology—specifically their effort to change the definition of “green chemistry.” Precision in terminology is paramount for science to function; all parties to a scientific discussion must share the same set of definitions for knowledge to advance effectively. In their review, Wilson and Schwarzman (2009) ignored the original and current definition of green chemistry, which for almost two decades has been recognized as a scientific discipline within the field of chemistry. Defined in the early 1990s by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (2009) as “the design of chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use or generation of hazardous substances,” green chemistry is now guided by a set of 12 principles (Anastas and Warner 1998) that are used in both research and teaching in chemis try laboratories around the world. Based on these principles, dozens of universities around the world teach green chemistry as a science. Seven graduate programs offer degrees in green chemistry. Two established peer-reviewed scientific journals focus specifically on research in green chemistry. The impact factor of the journal Green Chemistry (published by the Royal Society of Chemistry) has increased from 2.5 to almost 5 over the past 5 years. More than 1,500 articles on green chemistry have been published in the scientific literature over the past 15 years. Rather than embracing green chemistry’s widely used scientific definition, Wilson and Schwarzman (2009) instead conflate science and policy: The laws governing the chemical enterprise help define the incentives and disincentives that guide economic behavior in the market …. We use the term green chemistry in this context: as an analytical framework that encompasses both the science of safer chemistry and the laws and policies that will motivate its development and adoption by society. This conflation brings with it two risks. First, it undermines clarity in scientific communication, something that is especially important as the fields of environmental health and green chemistry attempt to establish cross-disciplinary collaboration. Such collaborations are likely to prove vital for both fields. Second, it saddles the intellectual and scientific enterprise of green chemistry with policy and, potentially, political baggage, as considerations of chemical policies unfold in the political arena. We are most certainly not arguing that the science of green chemistry should not inform chemical policies. Science and policy will be more effective, however, if political actors do not muddy accepted scientific terminology in service of a political/policy agenda, no matter how noble.

Catalysis as a foundational pillar of green chemistry

In 2015 the United Nations declared a framework comprising 17 aspirational goals known as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which was meant to be adopted by governments, industries, and other stakeholders worldwide to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that all people live with peace and prosperity by 2030. It can make the environment sustainable, in other words. Chemistry can play an essential role in helping society achieve the SDGs and Green Chemistry (GC) specifically may be a key player in this regard. GC complements other streams of chemistry, including environmental chemistry. Environmental Chemistry is the ‘chemistry of the environment’ that explains nature and the impact of man on nature. At the same time, GC is ‘chemistry for the environment’ i.e., more environmentally friendly chemistry. GC may be defined as “invention, design and application of chemical products and processes to reduce or eliminate the use and generation of hazardous substances”. New chemical research, green and sustainable chemistry education, green and sustainable chemical manufacturing practices, and a sense of social responsibility are critical for all chemists worldwide as we work together to protect our planet Earth. SDGs including Zero Hunger, Good Health and Well-being, Clean Water and Sanitation, Affordable and Clean Energy, Industries, Innovation and Infrastructure, Responsible Consumption and Production, Climate Action is directly related to chemistry at large and GC in precise. Therefore, if we rightly practice GC, it serves the purpose of environmental sustainability and will be useful in achieving the SDGs, which will ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity in the long run. Green Chemistry Education is quite important in this regard, which needs to be practiced more and more.

Science Education International ¦ Volume 32 ¦ Issue 2 107 ORIGINAL ARTICLE INTRODUCTION The problem-based learning (PBL) methodology is a student-centered approach that is related to the learning process that occurs when students deal with real world problems, while working in teams to find and develop a solution, with teachers/instructors acting as facilitators (Nagarajan and Overton, 2019). Some elements seem to be common to PBL: Learning is student centered (as mentioned before), problems are structured and authentic, teachers act as advisors, and students work in small groups (Cowden and Santiago, 2016). Although, the elements are in constant interaction, students are responsible of their learning, implying that they have the main role in the cognitive process and should work actively, in group, to solve a problem. On the other hand, instructors act as coaches, they incite group discussion, and they are in charge of monitoring the process. Students are the main characters, since PBL methodology emerged from constructivist learning theories and it was developed as an alternative to conventional teaching (Loyens et al., 2006). Constructivism suggests that humans build knowledge from their experiences and, contrary to traditional education, where students receive knowledge like empty vessels to be filled, in constructivist, students are encouraged to confront what they know (Bada and Olusegun, 2015). It is evident that, long-term memorability is enhanced by PBL, because it fosters the utilization of previous knowledge to solve a new problem and demands students to put in practice what they have already been taught, therefore, facilitating the comprehension of the concepts (Schmidt et al., 2011). Other benefits that come along with PBL include the improvement of student’s creative thinking, self-regulated skills, and self-evaluation (Jansson et al., 2015; Yoon et al., 2014). Therefore, to improve chemistry student’s learning experience, the PBL approach can be used for a better comprehension of the importance of Green Chemistry. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA, 1990), Green Chemistry is the design of chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use or generation of hazardous substances; this designing process can be assisted by the Twelve Principles of Green Chemistry (Lancaster, 2002). The principles are qualitative, and their aim is to minimize the impact of chemical activities on human health and environment without compromising the chemical process (Ribeiro and Machado, 2013). There is a commitment to green chemistry education (Armstrong et al., 2018), and efforts have been made to implement it, at the undergraduate level (Timmer et al., 2018; Kennedy, 2016; Manchanayakage, 2013), but there is an uneven development of green chemistry curricular materials, since there have been few comprehensive reforms for general chemistry lecture or laboratory curricula (Armstrong et al., 2019). For example, Green Chemistry has not been covered extensively by chemistry A problem-based learning (PBL) methodology was implemented to a project, whose main objectives were to discuss and apply the Twelve Principles of Green Chemistry to the study of poly(vinyl alcohol)’s cross-linking reaction with dicarboxylic acids. The five participating students were oriented to be responsible for their own learning and the professor participated as an advisor. The problem was proposed and students planned all their activities to accomplish the objectives and goals, reviewed recent information in scientific literature and summarized it, made experimental work, prepared written reports, and were evaluated in seminars. The results obtained by the students were assessed through the generation of a final report and also with a final oral presentation in front of faculty members. The experience lived by the collaborative workgroup during the development and execution of the project, is described. This research is an example of how the PBL methodology can motivate the active participation of students when solving problems. The next step is to introduce this tool to teachers and students of other undergraduate courses or laboratories, since it causes a difference in the way education is being perceived in our university, because it emphasizes the application and understanding of concepts over simple memorization.

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.

The first Special Topic issue devoted to green chemistry was published in Pure and Applied Chemistry in July 2000 [Pure Appl. Chem.72, 1207-1403 (2000)]. Since then, three collections of works have been published, arising from the recently launched IUPAC series of International Conferences on Green Chemistry:- 1st International Conference on Green Chemistry (ICGC-1), Dresden, Germany, 10-15 September 2006: Pure Appl. Chem.79, 1833-2100 (2007)- 2nd International Conference on Green Chemistry (ICGC-2), Moscow, Russia, 14-20 September 2008: Pure Appl. Chem.81, 1961-2129 (2009)- 3rd International Conference on Green Chemistry (ICGC-3), Ottawa, Canada, 15-18 August 2010: Pure Appl. Chem.83, 1343-1406 (2011)This Special Topic issue forms part of the series on green chemistry, and is an outcome of IUPAC Project No. 2008-016-1-300: “Chlorine-free Synthesis for Green Chemistry” previously announced in Chemistry International, May-June, p. 22 (2011).The IUPAC Subcommittee on Green Chemistry was founded in July 2001 and has selected the following definition for green chemistry [1]: “The invention, design and application of chemical products and processes to reduce or to eliminate the use and generation of hazardous substances” [2].Much controversy persists about the appropriate terminology to describe this new field of research. Which term should be selected, “green chemistry” or “sustainable chemistry”? Perhaps consensus can be achieved if different purposes and interests of chemists are reconciled. If we are involved in fundamental research devoted to the discovery of new reaction pathways and reagents, “green” is the best word because it defines these intents, thus the term “green chemistry” would be the best name for this field of research. If we are interested in exploitation of a process or a product that must be profitable, then such chemical manufacture must be sustainable by many criteria (price, competition, profit, environment, etc.), and, accordingly, “sustainable chemistry” is the term that best defines this objective.This Special Topic issue has been designed with the intent to explore the restriction, or preferably prevention, of the use of halogenated compounds, whenever feasible, through the assembly and reporting of already identified information. This intent has been pursued through innovative synthetic pathways using clearly identified production drivers (e.g., energy consumption, environmental impact, economical feasibility, etc.). In past decades, scientific knowledge and feasible technologies were unavailable, but we now have enough expertise to pursue discontinuation of hazardous and toxic reagents. In fact, the replacement of reagents that are toxic, dangerous, and produced by eco-unfriendly processes is still an underdeveloped area of chemistry today.Pietro TundoProject Co-chair1. For a short history of green chemistry, see: P. Tundo, F. Aricò. Chem. Int.29(5), (2007).2. P. Anastas, D. Black, J. Breen, T. Collins, S. Memoli, J. Miyamoto, M. Polyakoff, W. Tumas, P. Tundo. Pure Appl. Chem.72, 1207 (2000).

When it comes to ecological diversity, California has it all: snow-capped mountains, wide deserts, scenic beaches, and some of the worst environmental problems in the country. Six of the country’s ten most polluted cities—Los Angeles, Bakersfield, Fresno–Madera, Visalia–Porterville, Merced, and Sacramento—are found in California, where children face fivefold greater risks of reduced lung function compared with children who live in less-polluted areas. Beyond its air pollution problems, California could also face catastrophic consequences from climate change. Assuming warming trends continue at their present rates, experts generally agree that the Sierra snowpack—which is crucial to the state’s drinking water supply—could decline by 50–90% by the century’s end. With statistics like that, environmentalism has become a powerful force in California. According to a 2006 survey conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), a San Francisco–based research organization, 65% of Californians don’t think the federal government is doing enough to combat global warming. Two-thirds of the population support state efforts to address climate change, while an equal number support tougher air pollution standards on new vehicles, even if it makes vehicles more expensive. California legislators have responded with some of the strongest environmental laws ever passed. Whereas the U.S. government has yet to regulate carbon dioxide, California recently passed AB 32, a groundbreaking law signed by governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in September 2006 that directs industries to reduce all greenhouse gas emissions by 25% over the next 13 years. Another law—AB 1493, which was enacted in 2002—directs automakers to reduce greenhouse gases emitted by passenger vehicles sold in California after 2009, with a 30% reduction in statewide vehicular emissions by 2016. (That law is currently being challenged by a lawsuit from the automotive industry.) This year, California will consider a statewide green chemistry policy that could exceed the scope of the federal Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), which sets national policy on chemicals used in products and industrial processes. Local governments have also tightened environmental controls. San Francisco, for instance, recently passed the country’s first ban on baby products containing bisphenol A and has also regulated levels of phthalates in these products. Bisphenol A and phthalates are both suspected endocrine disruptors. Coming from one of the world’s largest economies, these preemptive legislative efforts have impressive clout. “California provides an example [for other states],” says Cympie Payne, associate director of the California Center for Law and Policy at the University of California (UC), Berkeley. “Other states find it easier to model their own laws on those that another state has already put into effect.”

‡ To whose memory this paper is dedicated. Joe Breen was a leading pioneer of green chemistry. Following his retirement from EPA, Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics, where he worked on asbestos, dioxins, and pollution prevention, Joe became Executive Director of the Green Chemistry Institute, a not-for-profit organization promoting environmentally benign syntheses and processing. His premature death on 19 July 1999 created a void in the Working Party team, but encouraged all of us to continue our mission, having in mind his passion for this work and his exquisite friendship.

Green Chemistry or Sustainable Chemistry is defined by the Environmental Protection Agency as "the design of chemical products that reduce or eliminate the use of hazardous substances" In recent years there is a greater societal expectation that chemists and chemical engineers should produce greener and more sustainable chemical processes and it is likely that this trend will continue to grow over the next few decades. This tutorial review gives information on solvents and solvent selection, basic environmental metrics collection and three industrial case histories. All three case histories involve enzymatic chemistry. Pregabalin (Lyrica®) is produced using a lipase based resolution and is extremely unusual in that all four manufacturing steps to make pregabalin are performed in water. Sitagliptin (Januvia®) uses a transaminase in the final chemical step. Finally a rosuvastatin (Crestor®) intermediate is produced using a deoxy ribose aldolase (DERA) enzyme in which two carbon-carbon bonds and two chiral centres are formed in the same process step.

Experts mulled the differences between the defined field of green chemistry and the more imprecise concept of sustainable chemistry at a US congressional hearing July 25. Their discussions could influence legislation backed by industry and academics that would focus federal efforts on characterizing and directing grant funding to sustainable chemistry. Green chemistry principles were established in the 1990s, Julie Zimmerman, deputy director of the Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering at Yale University, told the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee’s Subcommittee on Research and Technology. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, “Green chemistry is the design of chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the generation of hazardous substances.” “The term sustainable chemistry has been introduced more recently and possesses countless definitions” put forth by individuals, companies, trade associations, nonprofit organizations, and governmental entities, Zi...

Catalyst has a noteworthy role in chemical processes in both industrial and scientific fields. Use of catalyst can helps to serve less energy, time and money. As a result, chemical process became more eco-friendly and economical. Nanocatalysts are an important branch in this issue. Multicomponent reactions (MCRs) are one of the most effective strategies in the field of green chemistry; witch is the utilization of a set of principles that reduces or eliminates the use or generation of hazardous substances in the design, manufacture, and application of chemical products. Therefore, by application of nanocatalysts in MCRs, chemical synthesis can approach aims of green and sustainable chemistry. As it is mentioned nanocatalyst, are important field and have many advantages in recent years. Magnetic nanocatalysts are a subdivision of catalyst and beneficial strategy in green chemistry. Biocatalysts are another one either. Meet of these two branches results a new, efficient and green nanocatalyst. Chitosan is a biopolymer and it is used in many organic syntheses as catalyst, supporting this with a magnetic nanocatalystmodified this biocatalyst and enhance its properties, also leads to another efficient and green catalyst.

A special green chemistry course was offered at Grand Valley State University, GVSU, in 2006. Among other assignments, students designed an electronic survey probing the knowledge and the interest in learning about green chemistry. Over 1600 students responded. The responses to the questions “where did you hear about green chemistry” clearly showed the lack of green chemistry inclusion into the curricular program GVSU at that time. Under the driving force of the students’ interest and the imperative need to feel the gap between the traditional content of industrial processes teaching and the principles of green chemistry, we were compelled to change. The result is a new course, Green Chemistry and Industrial Processes, based on green industrial applications. It is a bridge between the principles of green chemistry and industrial processes currently in use, between traditional topics and real-life cases, provided by the global and the local economy. Partnership with local area businesses constitutes an ideal ground for challenging the students’ ability to analyze and understand the existing problems and to develop their critical thinking, while finding creative solutions. This communication summarizes one of the invited papers to the spring 2010 online ConfChem Conference on Educating the Next Generation: Green and Sustainable Chemistry, held from May 7 to June 30, 2010. ConfChem conferences are hosted by the ACS DivCHED Committee on Computers in Chemical Education (CCCE).

In the pursuit towards attaining sustainability, arrays of greener pathways are being carved to address the needs of the diverse chemical universe. The evolving area of green and sustainable chemistry envisions minimum hazard as the performance criterion while designing new chemical processes. Green Chemistry is defined as "the utilization of a set of principles that reduces or eliminates the use or generation of hazardous substances in the design, manufacture, and application of chemical products" [1]. Sustainable processes are being sought to explore alternatives to conventional chemical syntheses and transformations. Among several thrust areas for achieving this target includes: the utility of alternative feedstocks, preferably from renewable materials or waste from other industries; unconventional efficient reaction conditions and eco-friendly reaction media to accomplish the desired chemical transformations with minimized by-products or waste generation, and ideally avoiding the use of conventional volatile organic solvents, wherever possible. Other avenues for achieving this objective are to explore the generation of efficient catalytic processes, particularly magnetically retrievable nano-catalysts [1,2,3,4]. In addition to greener synthesis, the recyclability and reuse aspects for catalytic systems are extremely significant particularly when it boils down to the use of endangered elements and precious catalysts. Several friendlier applications in catalysis have been advanced via magnetically recoverable and recyclable nano-catalysts for oxidation, reduction, and multi-component condensation reactions [1,2,3,4] and this has made a terrific impact on the development of green chemical pathways [1]. The greener preparation of nanoparticles has been exemplified via the use of vitamins B1, B2, C, and tea [5] and wine polyphenols [6], beet juice [7] and other agricultural residues which function both as reducing and capping agents. This avoids the need to deploy toxic reducing agents, such as borohydrides or hydrazines and empowers simple and aqueous green synthetic methods to produce bulk quantities of nano-catalysts without the requirement for large amounts of insoluble templates [8]. [...]

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Green chemistry or sustainable chemistry is defined by the Environmental Protection Agency as “the design of chemical products that reduce or eliminate the use of hazardous substances”. In recent years there has been a greater societal expectation that chemists and chemical engineers should produce greener and more sustainable chemical processes and it is likely that this trend will continue to grow over the next few decades. This review gives information on solvents and solvent selection, basic environmental metrics collection and three industrial case histories. All three case histories involve enzymatic chemistry. Pregabalin (Lyrica®) is produced using a lipase-based resolution and is extremely unusual in that all four manufacturing steps to make pregabalin are performed in water. Sitagliptin (Januvia®) uses a transaminase in the final chemical step. Finally, a rosuvastatin (Crestor®) intermediate is produced using a deoxyribose aldolase (DERA) enzyme in which two carbon–carbon bonds and two chiral centres are formed in the same process step. It is hoped that the case histories presented in this chapter will inspire process chemists to target even more sustainable chemical processes.