Pollution & chemicals
Green Chemistry
The design of chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use and generation of hazardous substances, codified in the 12 Principles of Anastas and Warner.
Definition
Green chemistry is the design of chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use or generation of hazardous substances. The field is structured by the 12 Principles articulated by Paul Anastas and John Warner in "Green Chemistry: Theory and Practice" (1998), spanning waste prevention, atom economy, safer syntheses and solvents, energy efficiency, renewable feedstocks, catalysis, design for degradation, real-time pollution monitoring, and inherently safer chemistry.
References
the 12 Principles
origin
Overview
What it means
Green chemistry works upstream: rather than managing pollution after it is created, it designs hazards out at the molecular and process level. It is a design philosophy as much as a discipline — asking chemists to optimise commercial function while minimising hazard across a product's life cycle.
How it is used
The principles guide industrial R&D, pharmaceutical and materials manufacturing, curricula, and regulatory programmes such as pollution-prevention initiatives; methods like GreenScreen operationalise hazard comparison for product design.
Why it matters
Chemistry underpins nearly all manufactured goods; making chemistry inherently safer is one of the highest-leverage pollution-prevention strategies available.
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