Sustainability: Getting Involved

Abstract

MEETING THE CHALLENGES of sustainability will require myriad insightful and innovative technological, economic, and organizational advances. The 2005 National Research Council report “Sustainability in the Chemical Industry: Grand Challenges and Research Needs” identified sustainability science literacy at every level of society as one of eight grand challenges to achieving the broader goal of sustainability. There are other organizations that seek to promote sustainability education in a variety of contexts and for a range of audiences, but no other organization has the technical expertise combined with both the experience with and commitment to education that ACS has demonstrated for decades. As the world’s largest scientific society, ACS has both an opportunity and an obligation to energize and empower its more than 163,000 members to engage their knowledge and skills to help meet the challenges of a sustainable human society. In support of these goals, the society’s Committee on Environmental Improvem...