Join us at the 2022 Green Chemistry Commitment Summit to hear how our first Green Chemistry Education Challenge award-winners are working to develop diverse, replicable models to incorporate green chemistry into science departments.
Part of the excitement and challenge of working to bring green chemistry to higher education institutions across the nation is the diversity of approaches needed for success. It is through this diversity that we will have the greatest impact on the most students, helping to equip the scientists of the future with the knowledge and resources to tackle our most pressing challenges.
This is why Beyond Benign developed the Green Chemistry Commitment (GCC) 25×25 goal, which seeks to ensure that 25 percent of graduating chemists in the U.S. have a background in green chemistry by 2025. To help us realize this goal, in partnership with Dow, in 2021 we created our first Green Chemistry Education Challenge Awards. Through the awards, we provide support to challenge winners to empower faculty and students to bring green chemistry to their departments.
Last year we were thrilled to award the first of these grants to the University of California Berkeley; Michigan State University; and Southern University. Using award funding, these three universities are designing approximately 10 teaching resources for undergraduate courses, helping bring green chemistry directly to more than 3,000 students each year.
The diversity of approaches at each of these universities will serve as models for additional institutions to create pathways for shifting their chemistry teaching and practice. Join us at the upcoming free, virtual Green Chemistry Commitment Summit to hear how these universities designed and/or expanded green chemistry at their institutions, and what’s next for our Green Chemistry Education Challenge Awards. The Summit is open to all. We hope to see you there!
Click here to register for the free virtual GCC Summit
“Green chemistry is a fundamental building block toward designing safer materials for a sustainable planet,” says Eunice Heath, Dow’s corporate director of Sustainability. “Therefore, we are partnering with Beyond Benign to ensure students are entering the workforce with the essential green chemistry and sustainable chemistry knowledge and skills to help us address solutions for circular economy and decarbonization. These are the world’s greatest challenges as we strive for a sustainable future for generations to come.”
Learn More About Our Challenge Award Recipients & Projects
Southern University: A 2021 Green Chemistry Commitment (GCC) signer, Southern University will use its award to design a 3-year project to implement green chemistry across the entire Chemistry department. Fundamental concepts and real-life applications of green chemistry will be introduced and taught in these courses to provide students an insightful perspective of the significant role green chemistry plays in solving environmental issues such as global warming and pollution, along with hands-on approaches in chemistry laboratory courses.
Michigan State University: A GCC Signer since 2018, MSU is using the award to pilot and evaluate green chemistry and project-based laboratory curriculum designed for organic laboratory courses for STEM and BA chemistry majors. This award will support the work of undergraduates as they beta-test the student-facing curricular materials to plan and carry out each investigation and to design protocols to evaluate each project on key green & sustainable chemistry principles, using appropriate metrics.
University of California Berkeley: UC Berkeley, a founding GCC Signer since the program launched in 2013, has been a leader in green chemistry education. With this award, the University will build upon the work it has done to integrate green chemistry in first year- level general chemistry. Through this award, the University will start a complete redesign of the curriculum for its sophomore-level organic course to explicitly integrate GCC Student Learning Goals.
