Sustainability and the Chemistry Enterprise

With increasing public awareness of climate change, environmental pollution, and earth's declining resources, sustainability and green chemistry have become hot topics these days. In 2015, the United Nations adopted 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) to be achieved in 2030. Chemistry can play a key role in meeting these goals, and the American Chemical Society (ACS) is committed to supporting its members and working with partners to address these SDG's. Several of the SDG's involve innovation, responsible consumption and production, and the food-water-energy nexus. One of the methods to achieve these goals is to use agro-based materials, not only for food and energy but also for product development, such as bioplastics, specialty chemicals, industrial products, and specific materials for different applications. In this talk, the speaker will provide an overview of the sustainability initiatives at ACS and his platform as ACS President in 2021. The speaker will also highlight selected research and development (R&D) areas that are related to green polymer chemistry and agro-based materials, as examples of the ongoing R&D work in sustainability.