In her TEDx Talk, “The Promise of Green Chemistry,” Beyond Benign Co-Founder and Executive Director Dr. Amy Cannon inspires calls for a paradigm shift in chemistry education to focus on reducing or eliminating substances hazardous to environmental and human health. “We can’t wait for someone else to clean up our messes,” Amy says. “We can’t wait for someone else to save the world. We can do chemistry better and smarter, but only as long as we’re given the tools and the training to do so.”
Drawing from her extensive background, including holding the world’s first Ph.D. in green chemistry, Amy emphasizes the importance of training chemists to be mindful of their work’s broader human and environmental impacts. “Chemistry can solve problems, and it can prevent future problems from occurring,” Amy says. “But only if we intentionally approach our chemistry through thoughtful, proactive design.”
Throughout the talk, Amy inspires us to view green chemistry as a fundamental part of how we teach and practice green chemistry. “Chemistry is essential. It makes up the molecular building blocks of the products that we use every day. It’s all around us and part of us,” she says. “We need to ensure that chemists are trained to create those building blocks sustainably.”
This talk was part of TEDxAmoskeagMillyard’s 2023 event “Here and Now” at the Rex Theatre in Manchester, New Hampshire. Watch the talk to learn about Amy’s green chemistry journey, why chemistry is a logical career path for creating change, and the importance of embedding green chemistry into chemistry education.
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When I was a freshman in high school, I participated in an Earth Day fair at my school here in Goffstown, New Hampshire. The topic that I chose to learn about was ozone depletion. The year was around 1990, and scientists had only recently discovered that the ozone layer that protects our Earth from harmful UV rays was thinning, and there was an alarmingly large hole being developed over the Antarctic. This hole and the thinning were being caused by a certain class of chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, as you may know them. And as I was learning about this, I remember feeling a sense of alarm and a sense of urgency. Alarm that there were actually chemicals and products that were capable of doing this type of destruction to the environment and urgency that something needed to be done about it. My friends and I put together an information booth to share what we have learned with the community. And I was actually even quoted in the local newspaper, the “Manchester Union Leader.” And I remember that there was no more important challenge to tackle — I’m sure you’re somewhat familiar with that sort of passion that youth might have. I wanted to save the world. But at 15 years old, I didn’t really know what that meant. And I wasn’t really sure how to contribute to these sorts of global challenges.
Like many teenagers, I had a lot of different passions growing up. In addition to sustainability, I also had a passion for athletics. And although these two may seem different, they were really essential in my career path. Upon graduation from high school, I was recruited to play division II basketball for St. Anselm College here in Manchester. St. Anselm, when it came time to choose majors, they didn’t have an environmental science major at the time, which is what I would have chosen due to my passion. So I decided I would major in a core science, and then I’d specialize later. So, I was left between chemistry and biology. And I ended up choosing chemistry because I had a wonderful high school chemistry teacher, Mrs. Lessard. She made it engaging and fun, and I ended up being somewhat decent at it, too. You know, thinking back, had I chosen another sport to play, had I attended another college that did have that environmental science major, I wouldn’t have had that foundation in chemistry, which turned out to be essential. So there I was, playing basketball and juggling a chemistry degree major, and I started to learn about the basics of chemistry. I learned about the chemical and physical properties of chemicals. I learned how to draw and name them. I learned about the periodic table and the different properties of the elements. I learned about chemical reactions and how to make some basic structures. I learned about analytical chemistry, which is basically detecting and studying chemicals in a variety of settings, including in the environment. And that’s exactly how I thought I was going to use my chemistry degree. My perception, at the time, was that the field of chemistry just really wasn’t very sustainable, and it was actually a huge part of the problem. But I thought I could use my chemistry skills to study problems and tell the world about them.
So, after graduation, I did an industrial internship, and I felt I wasn’t quite where I wanted to be and I wasn’t being true to my 15-year-old self that wanted to save the world. So I applied to graduate schools, and I was admitted to a program at the University of Massachusetts in Boston called ECOS — Environmental, Coastal, and Ocean Sciences. I started to take classes to learn about the environmental sciences and start to specialize like I thought. At the same time that I was taking those classes, I was assigned an advisor from the chemistry department due to my chemistry background: Dr. John Warner. John Warner was a young chemist and an inventor who had just left an industrial career inventing for Polaroid, the instant photography company. And I started to learn about his work. A year prior to me joining the university, he had just published a book called “Green Chemistry Theory and Practice.” I had never heard about this before. But he was among a handful of chemists that were starting to work towards making the field of chemistry more sustainable, and his work was exciting. He was creating new types of solar energy devices that use a lot less energy in the process of making them. He was creating new types of plastics that were not only a lot less toxic but also recyclable or biodegradable. He was creating new medicines that used a fraction of the active ingredient in order to be effective, but also were safe in how they were made. And what I realized is in my courses, I was learning about the downstream effects of the problem. For example, how pollution and chemicals impact our oceans and our ecosystems. But here was John focusing upstream on creating and ultimately inventing solutions.
Up until that point, I thought I’d be studying problems. I hadn’t realized I could actually use my chemistry degree to solve problems. So this got me wondering, why do we even have environmental problems in the first place? Why do we have products that cause cancer? Why do we have ozone-depleting chemicals? So, let’s take that example of the chlorofluorocarbons that I studied at my Earth Day fair years ago. How did they even get developed? What were scientists possibly thinking? Turns out that scientists were actually trying to solve a problem. And the problem was that the first generation of refrigerants, which is the main use of chlorofluorocarbons, those first generation of refrigerants, were a class of chemicals that were mostly gases that were either highly toxic or explosive. So those early refrigerators in the early 1900s, If there was a pinhole leak in that unit, and it leaked out into a home, it could result in families dying due to the toxicity of the gas. Or if there was a spark created, then refrigerators were actually known to explode. Could you possibly imagine having a refrigerator that could kill or explode? There was a clear problem that needed a solution. So scientists set out to create a nontoxic and stable solution to address those toxicity and explosive issues. And that’s exactly what they got in chlorofluorocarbons. CFCs are indeed non-toxic, so if there’s that pinhole leak, families won’t die. And they’re also not going to explode due to the stability of the gases. But in fact, they are so stable that when they’re released into the atmosphere, they remain intact all the way to the layer of our atmosphere where the stratosphere sits, and our ozone layer, where powerful UV lights hits them and breaks off a chlorine atom that does catalytic destruction to our ozone layer, basically busting a big hole in that layer. So, scientists ended up solving one problem and inadvertently created another. These types of unintended consequences in the field of chemistry are super common. We make some really great products with some really nasty side effects. I’m sure you can think of a number of them off the top of your head, from leaded gasoline and lead paint to now plastics that are building up in our oceans, we have a long history of unintended consequences. And we have a lot of chemicals in our society. In the US alone, we have over 80,000 chemicals in commerce today, with 2,500 of them being produced at a rate of more than 1 million pounds annually. Seven new chemicals are introduced into the market each day, resulting in over 2,000 new chemicals each year. How could we possibly ensure that each and every one of them are safe for humans in the environment? How can we avoid that next unintended consequence? The best way to avoid an unintended consequence is to anticipate it. By understanding what makes a molecule toxic to humans and the environment, it can give us tremendous control to design chemicals and products with reduced hazards and impacts. That statement might sound obvious — that chemists should understand what makes a molecule toxic or potentially destructive to the environment — but in the 90s and the 2000s during my studies, this knowledge was completely void from chemistry degree programs.
Yet here was John Warner, very intentionally focusing on the chemistry he was doing. And I realized that I found myself at the beginning of a movement — a movement where chemists were starting to think about creating products and chemicals very intentionally benign by design. And for the first time in my studies, I saw the true power of chemistry. And there was a shift from chemistry as the problem to chemistry as the solution. So, I was inspired and I changed back to being a chemistry major. I finished my Master’s in chemistry, and then I worked alongside John to create the world’s first Ph.D. program in green chemistry to start addressing these gaps. In 2005, I was the first graduate from this program, and I was among a small but growing number of chemists with green chemistry training. And at that time, and still largely true today, the majority of chemists were not and are not trained in green chemistry. Chemists are not trained to consider the impacts of the chemistry they use or the chemistry they create. So, it’s no wonder why we see unintended consequences. And this is exactly why I’ve dedicated my career to addressing this gap. I founded a nonprofit organization called “Beyond Benign,” where our mission is to empower elementary to university educators to transform chemistry education. We focus on educators so that scientists receive the training they need and citizens can make better decisions.
Chemistry is essential. It makes up the molecular building blocks of the products that we use every day. It’s all around us, and it’s part of us. We need to ensure that chemists are trained to create those building blocks sustainably. Chemistry can solve problems, and it can prevent future problems from occurring. But only if we intentionally approach our chemistry through thoughtful, proactive design. There’s tremendous power in smart molecular design. As a field of chemistry, we can make any molecule, any product, any material that we set our minds to. But we’re only just beginning to understand the profound responsibility that comes with that sort of power. We can’t wait for someone else to clean up our messes. We can’t wait for someone else to save the world. We can do chemistry better and smarter, but only as long as we’re given the tools and the training to do so. Beyond Benign’s “Green Chemistry Commitment” program is an institutional commitment to including green chemistry in the university curriculum. It’s voluntary and flexible and builds on the diverse strengths of chemistry educators. This program started in 2013 with 17 first signers, we saw our first international signer in 2016, and since then this has grown to over 140 universities worldwide and growing fast.
This is taking hold not only here in the United States but also in South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. This year alone, the signing rate for this program has nearly tripled, and we’re showing signs of a tipping point. But we have a lot of work to do. In the United States, we graduate about 22,000 chemists annually across all degree levels. Our Green Chemistry Commitment signers represent about 11% of those graduates — not an insignificant number. We have an ambitious goal of growing that to 25% over the next two years, our 25X25 goal, so that we can reach a critical mass that’s capable of creating change and get to a place where green chemistry is the norm, not the exception. The students that are involved with these programs are interested in solving problems and contributing to the greater good. Industry is listening to consumer calls for better, more sustainable products and preferentially hiring scientists with these skills. Because it turns out it makes good business sense when green chemistry is in practice. We know that green chemistry can lead to large societal benefits because of better, smarter molecular design; we have alternatives to chlorofluorocarbons today, and they’re nearly phased out across all applications. We have refrigerators that won’t kill us, and they won’t explode. And by the way, they also won’t deplete the ozone layer. When we put our minds to it, we can create those really great products without those nasty side effects. This type of preventative upstream thinking is certainly not new. I’m sure you’ve heard about it in healthcare — an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. And this is true across disciplines. If we are proactive in our thinking and our actions, there is so much we can anticipate and much we can avoid. We have a lot of challenges to tackle, from ozone depletion that inspired me years ago, to now climate change and plastics in the ocean that are inspiring youth today. Every single one of these challenges requires chemistry as a central part of the solution. But we can only get there if green chemistry is embedded in our education systems, and we’re preparing chemists with these skills. And my hope is that the next freshman that participates in their Earth Day fair and hears that call to action like I did, that chemistry is a logical career path for creating change and that green chemistry becomes the way we teach and practice chemistry. Thank you.