Heidelberg’s ACS Student Chapter advocated green chemistry to all students on campus. A local section meeting held on campus and a green chemistry lab writing contest targeted chemistry students, while an Earth Day Succulent Sale was used to target non-chemistry students. We hosted a program in a box to target both populations. We planned green chemistry events by modifying or adding green chemistry elements to existing events from previous years. Our local section meetings traditionally have included a speaker from academia or industry. To modify the event toward green chemistry we asked our speaker, from the National Center for Water Quality Research, to highlight how their lab became green through more efficient instrumentation and methodology. To add a green chemistry element to organic chemistry students, we sponsored a contest for students to redesign a lab they had conducted or design a new lab based on green chemistry. To incentivize this additional workload, we provided prizes for the top three submissions. Non-chemistry students tend to dismiss technical chemistry topics/events; thus, we conducted an event with an additional green chemistry element instead of holding the entire event about green chemistry. The “hook” to bring students to the event was the sale of small, window succulent plants. The green chemistry addition was an Earth day themed pamphlet about common household reagents and green alternative reagents. We used the pamphlet to inform students about how to prevent chemical waste, use products designed for degradation, and use renewable feedstocks. Our overall strategy for spreading green chemistry is to utilize local resources and tailor events to the target audience.

Green chemistry at Heidelberg University

2019 Spring National Meeting

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