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GREEN CHEMISTRY
Green chemistry refers to the redesign of chemical products and processes with the goal of reducing or eliminating any negative environmental or health effects. The community
consists largely of engineers and chemists, in both industry and academia. Examples of green chemistry projects include: finding non-toxic, non volatile solvent substitutes,
developing new reaction media, catalysis, and environmentally friendly materials.
Journal of Green Chemistry
Published by they Royal Society of Chemistry (UK), the journal covers the application of innovative technology to established industrial processes, the development of
environmentally improved routes to important products, the design of new Green chemicals and materials, the use of sustainable resources, the use of biotechnology
alternatives, and methodologies and tools for evaluating environmental impact.
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Green Chemistry Network
An excellent jumping off point, to get research references or contacts. Focused on education, based in the UK and launched by the Royal Society of Chemistry, the organisation's
aim is to " promote awareness and facilitate education, training and practice of Green Chemistry in industry, academia and schools". Site contains a database on Green
Chemistry, listing of events (e.g. workshops, conferences, most of which are in the UK), useful topic-based searchable mbers' database, very useful list of recent scientific
publications on green chemistry.
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Green Chemistry Links from the Green Chemistry Network
More Green Chemistry Links.
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Green Chemistry Institute
Based at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, this is the site for a not-for-profit dedicated to environmentally benign chemical synthesis and processing research and education.
Its mission is to "establish industry-government partnerships with universities and national laboratories to prevent pollution using economically sustainable clean production
technologies". The most useful thing about the site is where it leads to summary of educational initiatives, conferences and research centres. U.S. focused. Not much overlap
with GCN site. Taken together, they give a good summary of the global community active in research in this area. Short on business examples.
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American Chemistry Association
Another site focusing on changing chemistry education to include principles of green chemistry, this site includes these 12 principles, educational materials and web resources
(very good, but almost exclusively U.S. focused).
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EPA Green Chemistry Program
Government gateway site, for a non-regulatory program works with interested parties in all sectors to foster research, development, and implementation of innovative chemical
technologies that prevent pollution in a scientifically sound and cost-effective manner. The site includes a list of related tools and literature, research grants, definition of what
green chemistry is, and a summary of EPA projects and programs. Links aren't as thorough as other sites mentioned above.
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McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry
Excellent, and recently revamped site, summarizing the firm's business practices, projects and theory underlying them (e.g. Next Industrial Revolution and Eco-effectiveness.
MBDC is currently the most prominent firm in green design, bridging the gap between green chemistry science and implementation, i.e. in design and manufacturing). Of note:
reference section includes glossary, MBDC publications, the McDonough Braungart Design Protocol. Related links ok, not great.
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Kendall Wright
A firm in Toronto specializing in healthy, sustainable and environmentally conscious interiors, Heather Kendall and Jennifer Wright are knowledgeable and experience interior
designers, familiar with green products and design.
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Biomimicry
The critical question here is "How might we apply biological designs, processes, and laws to the design of human systems? The site is based on an influential book of the
same name. Sections include services, summary and first chapter of the book, biomimicry explained and case studies of biomimicry being applied to both materials and
processes, many of which are from the book. The site is "evolving", the essential resources section is empty. Approach is grounded in biological sciences.
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UNEP Working Group on Sustainable Product Development
Includes a database of sustainable products from around the world.
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Green Procurement info from Greenbiz.com
For concrete examples in the business community. A journalistic focus. Examples include stories about a process to condense and reuse VOCs, creating silicon based
chemicals from sand.
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Green Chemistry from Greenbiz.com
Enter "green chemistry" into the site's search engine to get recent new stories related to green chemistry.
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Green Design Resources from Business for Social Responsibility
Choose "Environment", then "Green Product Design" from the menu on the left hand side.
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Green Products Databases
www.procara.ca
www.epa.gov - (which focuses only on recycled content)
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