Sustainability in the Chemical Industry

Book excerpt: Through innovative design, creation, processing, use, and disposal of substances, the chemical industry plays a major role in advancing applications to support sustainability in a way that will allow humanity to meet current environmental, economic, and societal needs without compromising the progress and success of future generations. Based on a workshop held in February 2005 that brought together a broad cross section of disciplines and organizations in the chemical industry, this report identifies a set of overarching Grand Challenges for Sustainability research in chemistry and chemical engineering to assist the chemical industry in defining a sustainability agenda. These Grand Challenges include life cycle analysis, renewable chemical feedstocks, and education, among others.