For the health of our planet and our people, it is important to train the next generation of chemists to think critically about their chemistry and explore ways to reduce the health and environmental impacts of the molecules they are designing. Training chemists to innovative solutions to our global challenges in the safest way possible is pivotal to safe working conditions within the chemical industry and the benefits extend to society in safer, more environmentally-friendly consumer products. Assessing the risk of performing a reaction gives chemists ownership and control of their safety. Teaching Green Chemistry and systems thinking can shift the focus of laboratory safety culture from compliance to pragmatic. Beyond Benign, My Green Lab, and MilliporeSigma have teamed up to develop a comprehensive teaching guide for undergraduate organic chemistry labs, employing the green chemistry metric, DOZN™ 2.0 for a quantitative assessment of the experiments. The Guide to Green Chemistry Experiments for Undergraduate Organic Labs will be highlighted as one approach towards recognizing and assessing the risks of hazards in a chemical reaction. Minimizing the risks of a chemical reaction and preparing for emergencies involves the EH&S professionals in the conversation. Engaging and communicating effectively with EH&S and other safety stakeholders can advance Green chemistry and the Green Labs movement. Understanding how motivational focus affects our perceptions and attitudes can allow stakeholders to better partner on Green Labs initiatives and more successfully implement these techniques. This presentation will focus on how to use this new, free, customizable guide to educate the next generation of scientists to design experiments with sustainability in mind, and how to use it as a resource for innovation and best practices in research labs. The presentation will conclude with an invitation to the attendees to collaborate on the next resource guide geared towards general and inorganic chemistry undergraduate teaching labs.

Integrating green chemistry and sustainability into undergraduate teaching and beyond through safer labs

ACS Fall 2020 Virtual Meeting

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.