Pictured: Ed Brush on July 15, 2016

A colleague, friend, and passionate advocate for green chemistry, environmental justice, and sustainability.

“I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.” – Mother Teresa

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Beloved community member and leader, Ed Brush, sadly passed away on February 23rd, 2025. You can read Ed’s obituary, share memories, and more at this link.

Beyond Benign is gathering memories and photos of Ed from the community to be shared in a memorial at the 2025 Green Chemistry Commitment Summit and ACS Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference. You can contribute to the memorial using this google form.

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A Letter from Beyond Benign Co-Founders, Amy Cannon and John Warner

It is with deep sorrow that we share the passing of Ed Brush, a beloved member of the green chemistry education community and a long-time partner, colleague and friend to us at Beyond Benign. We also hold deep gratitude as we remember his life and work  and the many, many ripples he created over the course of his life. While he will be dearly missed, his work and passion will be carried on and echoed throughout the green chemistry education community. Ed touched hundreds, if not thousands, of lives through his work as an educator and his unwavering commitment to advancing green chemistry education.

We first met Ed in the early 2000s when we were at the University of Massachusetts. As a faculty member at Bridgewater State University (BSU), Ed invited John to give a keynote talk at a new Undergraduate Research Symposium he was organizing. The research symposium reflected Ed’s passions: undergraduate student engagement and sustainability. The enthusiasm of the students was palpable, and it was energizing to see their posters; many aligned undergraduate chemistry research with the 12 principles of green chemistry, and others focused on important, relevant environmental challenges. From that day on, Ed was a valued part of our network and a key collaborator and colleague in our work in New England and beyond. He even spent a sabbatical working with us at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, where he focused on green chemistry research and worked closely with students in the Center for Green Chemistry.

Since founding Beyond Benign in 2007, we had the privilege of collaborating with Ed to create resources, run workshops for both higher education faculty and K-12 educators, and organize symposia. He was a member of our founding Advisory Board that created the Green Chemistry Commitment program, and his ideas and perspectives were essential in making it what it is today. BSU was part of the first cohort of 13 universities to sign on to the Commitment, and Ed was among the biggest supporters and advocates for engaging additional institutions. In 2019, Beyond Benign hosted 12 green chemistry educators for a focus group that ultimately seeded the creation of the Green Chemistry Teaching and Learning Community (GCTLC), another initiative Ed helped inspire.

Ed was also an active member of the American Chemical Society (ACS), a committee member for the Committee for Environmental Improvement (now the Committee on Environment and Sustainability), and he sought to include green chemistry in the chemical education programming at the ACS national meetings over the past 20 years. Thanks to his work, green chemistry and sustainability is now a regular part of the chemical education programming. He was passionate about the potential for chemistry to address sustainability challenges, creating unique activities that aligned chemistry to the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals and advocating for safer, better chemistry to address systemic issues in environmental and social justice.

Ed’s legacy is one of profound impact. Through his work, he helped to shape the future of green chemistry education, making it accessible and inspiring to so many. Beyond his professional contributions, Ed’s compassionate, kind, and gentle nature made him a pleasure to work alongside. He welcomed everyone into the community with open arms, and his generosity will never be forgotten. Working with him was truly a pleasure and a privilege.

While we will miss Ed dearly, we know that his work lives on — in so much of what we do at Beyond Benign and throughout the broader green chemistry education community. Ed created countless ripples across our community, and those ripples have grown into waves that continue to transform chemistry education.

Amy Cannon and John Warner, Co-Founders, Beyond Benign

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