As potentially or actually harmful ingredients are identified in commercial products, the goal is to replace them with safer alternatives. Yet a chemical ingredient is hardly a modular component that can be easily switched out. Further, replacement could remove one hazard and introduce others. To avoid this stymieing problem and ease an innovator’s choice of ingredients, Lavoie et al. report on a decision-making approach developed by the EPA’s Design for Environment program. A few case experiences illustrate its utility and recommend further use.

Green chemistry is enjoying significant adoption by industry around the world and widespread activity from the research community (1). One reason for this is that not only does green chemistry address the fundamental scientific challenges of protecting human health and the environment at the molecular level, it accomplishes this in an economically beneficial way for industry (2). One measure of this is the fact that while there is not a single regulation requiring industry to engage in the specific practices or methodologies of green chemistry (3), there are nevertheless plentiful examples of excellent green chemistry techniques being commercialized. This can be seen by both the number and quality of the nominations and winners of the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards given annually at the National Academy of Sciences (4).Green Chemistry, defined as the design of chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use and generation of hazardous substances (5), has been referred to as pollution prevention at the molecular level. This emerging area recognizes that during the design phase of any chemical synthesis, product, or process, minimized hazard must be viewed as a performance criterion. Moreover, hazard must also be viewed as a physical/chemical property that is possible to manipulate and control at the molecular level. By using the same skills, techniques, and expertise that is central to traditional chemistry, the practices of green chemistry are realizing some notable and in some cases, dramatic, results in the protection of human health and the environment.This book presents a number of the innovations that have been developed recently in the emerging area of green chemistry. The chapters of the book are derived from presentations made at the Green Chemistry and Engineering Conference at the National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C. This conference was established to

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