As a student, you have the power to create meaningful change on your campus and in your community. Find out how to bring green chemistry to your campus, research, and community – or connect with other like-minded students, here’s how to make it happen:
BRING GREEN CHEMISTRY TO YOUR CAMPUS
Advocate for your chemistry department to sign the Green Chemistry Commitment, joining a growing number of colleges and universities who are committed to integrating green chemistry throughout their courses and programs.
Learn more
PRACTICE GREENER CHEMISTRY
Advocate for greener experiments for your chemistry lab courses, or make greener solvent and reagent choices in your research. Greener chemistry can have significant benefits within research and teaching labs, including waste and cost reduction.
Access green chemistry resources
START A GREEN CHEMISTRY STUDENT CHAPTER
Adopt green chemistry activities within your existing chemistry club or chapter, or create a new club for students to join and contribute. Learn how other student chapters have implemented green chemistry in their student activities.
Learn more
grant program for MSI ACS student chapters
Is your ACS Student Chapter interested in applying for the ACS Green Chemistry Student Chapter Award? Are you from a Minority-Serving Institution (MSI) or does your group comprise and/or work with minority communities? As part of our MSI Initiative, Beyond Benign is providing guidance and support to MSI/minority student groups to win awards for their green chemistry work!
What is the purpose of this Grant?
Beyond Benign is providing honorariums for up to 5 ACS Student Chapters that are working towards an ACS Green Chemistry Student Chapter Award.
- The honorarium is $400 USD
- This money should be used by the Student Chapter to run green chemistry events and/or activities (a minimum of three green chemistry events and/or activities are required to win the ACS award).
Who is eligible to apply?
Any ACS Student Chapter from a Minority-Serving Institution is eligible to apply for our Grant.
Preference will be given to Student Chapters whose members comprise 51%+ BIPOC/gender minority students; and/or who work with 51%+ BIPOC/gender minority communities.
You do not have to be from a Green Chemistry Commitment Signing Institution. Winning a previous ACS award does not affect your eligibility for the Beyond Benign Grant!
How do I apply for the Beyond Benign Grant?
- Fill out our application form. There is no deadline for this award, and instead the awards will be considered on a first-come-first-serve basis. There are 5 awards currently available. Stay up to date about the number of available awards by bookmarking this webpage.
- Expect to hear back about the status of your application in February/March 2023. Funds will be released to you shortly thereafter.
- We will contact you to confirm you have submitted your annual report to the ACS in Spring 2023, and we will contact you to hear about the status of the ACS award in Fall 2023.
This grant program is sponsored by 3M.
Who do I contact if I have questions?
If you have any questions about this process, please contact Dr. Nimrat Obhi (nimrat_obhi@beyondbenign.org).
Helpful website pages from Beyond Benign and the ACS:
additional resources
Student-Led Organizations:
Network of Early-Career Sustainable Scientists & Engineers (NESSE): A community of students and early-career scientists and engineers connecting to tackle global sustainability challenges.
Green chemistry Initiative, University of Toronto: A student-run organization based in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Toronto. The group provides green chemistry resources to promote sustainability in chemistry research and education.
Greener Chemistry Resources:
American Chemical Society Green Chemistry Institute’s Pharmaceutical Roundtable Reagent Guides: Encourages chemists to choose greener reagents based on reagent utility, greenness and scalability.
My Green Lab: An organization dedicated to greening research labs by reducing energy use, water use, conversation, consumables and reducing the use of toxic chemicals.
CHEM21 Online learning platform: Free, sharable and interactive green chemistry education and training materials , including solvent substitute guides and a synthetic toolbox for greener reagent selection.
American Chemical Society’s Green Chemistry Institute: Resources for faculty, students and professionals. Information about becoming an ACS Green Chemistry Student Chapter.
Mechanochemistry for Sustainable Industry (MechSustInd): is a European Union networking initiative aimed to nurture and catalyse interactions between European and overseas researchers in Mechanochemistry.
