Moving Green Chemistry Forward: Networks as a Foundation

Abstract:

Green chemistry is a growing discipline, but for a variety of reasons, it has not yet become integrated into science curriculum and the greater societal conscience. With its increasing economic benefits to many sectors including business, industry, and academia and its potential to make science more accessible not only to science students but also to the general citizenry, we suggested answers to the questions: Why has greater success not been realized? What are the particular barriers to wider implementation? And what are incentives and ways to move green chemistry forward? We suggest some strategies and options to both increase the use of green chemistry principles and to also increase stakeholders’ understanding of the importance and utility of green chemistry in their daily lives. For example, our main suggestions are that an inclusive, multidisciplinary network would aid in coordinating data and in translating the science into user friendly tools, and that an educational component embedded in this greater effort would also serve to move green chemistry forward.