{"id":335,"date":"2016-08-15T12:36:05","date_gmt":"2016-08-15T12:36:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/chemsustainability\/?page_id=335"},"modified":"2016-08-30T08:56:28","modified_gmt":"2016-08-30T08:56:28","slug":"what-is-sustainable-chemistry-why-should-i-care","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/chemsustainability\/what-is-sustainable-chemistry-why-should-i-care\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Sustainable Chemistry?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sustainable or\u00a0green\u00a0chemistry is about adjusting existing\u00a0or designing new chemical processes in an attempt to shrink\u00a0science&#8217;s footprint on the environment and wider world. This\u00a0involves finding ways to use less water, energy, resources\u00a0and produce less waste. This can range from small and simple steps like avoiding excess solvent and water use.\u00a0It also encompasses new ideas and ingenuity, such as <a href=\"http:\/\/pubs.acs.org\/doi\/abs\/10.1021\/ed400892t\">creating plastic from paper<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.york.ac.uk\/chemistry\/research\/green\/research\/altsolvents\/\">deriving benign solvents from\u00a0food waste<\/a>\u00a0or <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/chemsustainability\/2016\/08\/11\/3d-printing-for-custom-made-labware\/\">exploiting new technologies like 3D printing.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Why does green chemistry matter? Scientific progress has dramatically improved the quality of life of people around the world. However, industry cannot continue to do so indefinitely unless its habits are restructured. Natural resources (even chemical elements) are quickly being depleted and the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/journals.ametsoc.org\/doi\/abs\/10.1175\/WCAS-D-13-00059.1\">consequences of climate change\u00a0could be contributing to global instability\u00a0politically and economically<\/a>.\u00a0In order to mitigate this and allow science to continue flourishing, it must find alternative ways to produce the materials, technologies and\u00a0drugs we all use and greener ways to make the discoveries we all benefit from.<\/p>\n<p>As well as being environmentally friendly, <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/chemsustainability\/what-we-are-up-to\/reaction-optimization\/\">sustainable chemistry is all about efficiency<\/a>. Obviously, avoiding the use of anything un-necessary (heating, water, solvent etc.) will cut costs. Being green does not mean being backwards; on the contrary. Finding\u00a0out how to get the best\u00a0possible\u00a0outcome with the least possible impact\u00a0just makes plain practical sense, and is integral to\u00a0chemical science\u00a0going forwards.<\/p>\n<p>All in all, sustainable chemistry is an exciting field which this blog is keen to promote awareness and discussion of.\u00a0If you&#8217;re interested, read on!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sustainable or\u00a0green\u00a0chemistry is about adjusting existing\u00a0or designing new chemical processes in an attempt to shrink\u00a0science&#8217;s footprint on the environment and wider world. This\u00a0involves finding ways to use less water, energy, resources\u00a0and produce less waste. This can range from small and simple steps like avoiding excess solvent and water use.\u00a0It also encompasses new ideas and ingenuity, &hellip; <\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link block-button\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/chemsustainability\/what-is-sustainable-chemistry-why-should-i-care\/\">Continue reading &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98697,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-335","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","nodate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/chemsustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/chemsustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/chemsustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/chemsustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/98697"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/chemsustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/chemsustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":343,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/chemsustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/335\/revisions\/343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/chemsustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}