Green Priorities

SUSTAINABLE CHEMISTRY

Developing environmentally friendlier products and processes that don't wreck a company's bottom line is an admirable goal for the chemical industry. But determining exactly how to do that still needs work.

That was the agenda topic for 100 scientists, engineers, and business and policy experts who met in Washington, D.C., last week to identify national research priorities that "effectively incorporate sustainability thinking at all levels within the chemical industry." A report recommending specific research and education goals and funding priorities will be issued later this year.

A National Academies Board on Chemical Sciences & Technology committee organized the workshop.

"The chemical industry is always interested in being green, but it has to be cost-effective," commented committee chair James A. Trainham III, a vice president at PPG Industries. Now, with high feedstock and energy costs, sustainability is becoming a higher priority, he noted. "I'm an optimist and believe that a revolution involving new chemistry and engineering and education will renew the industry."

The committee will derive research priorities from four focus areas: promoting sustainability science literacy and education, enabling technologies to drive the application of green chemistry and engineering, developing alternatives to fossil fuels as the source of chemical feedstocks, and reducing the energy intensity of the chemical process industry. An overarching need identified at the workshop is better use of life-cycle analysis, a business tool to guide product design.

Chemists need to understand that adding an environmental or sustainability layer over research "is not a constraint on creativity but rather is a challenge to creativity," said John B. Carberry, director of environmental technology at DuPont. "Forward-thinking companies are beginning to realize this point. The economic advantages need to be understood."