Green Chemistry is an ongoing attempt to address the problems that chemicals and chemical processes can sometimes cause to the environment. Emerging in the 1990's, Green Chemistry primarily addressed issues within the synthetic chemistry industry. At that time, the EPA and UMass published a 12 Principles Checklist, as a way to reduce both the environmental impact and the potential negative health effects of chemicals and chemical synthesis. Removing hazardous materials from materials and processes decreases hazard-related costs associated with handling, transportation, disposal, and compliance. What began as a way to reduce waste, cost and toxicity has since become the source of amazing insights and innovation creating new materials ranging from water harvesting to Alzheimer treatment. Through Green Chemistry, environmentally benign alternatives to current materials and technologies can be systematically introduced across all types of manufacturing to promote a more environmentally and economically sustainable future. Please join us as we discuss the history, successes and potential of a new and better way of thinking about chemistry!
Norman has spent the past 30 years in the field of Analytical Chemistry finding trace compounds for NASA, food, environmental, agrichem and clinical diagnostics. However, after spending a year in Ethiopia, he became an advocate for the creation of robust and durable analytical tools that could be used in developing countries where resources and power are unreliable at best. Currently, Norman is the Executive Director of the Frölich Institute for Research in Sustainable Technology, and is a Co-Lead Faculty member at Wake Forest University in the graduate program for the Science of Sustainability focusing on Biomass and Bioenergy.