To avoid adverse
side effects of chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and
their transformation products (TPs) in the environment, substances
should be designed to fully mineralize in the environment at their
end-of-life while ensuring a degree of stability as needed for their
application. These considerations should be implemented at the very
beginning of chemical’s and pharmaceutical’s design
(Benign by Design, BbD) to meet requirements set by planetary boundaries
and upcoming legal frameworks (e.g., “Chemicals Strategy for
Sustainability towards a Toxic-Free Environment” by the European
Commission (EC)). In silico tools are already being
implemented in the drug discovery process and the assessment of chemicals
and pharmaceuticals. The advantage of which is avoiding or at least
minimizing animal testing and chemical waste due to experimental testing
as well as reducing the time to market. However, in the literature,
there are just a few examples of how in silico tools
could be implemented in the BbD process. Therefore, this study suggests
a workflow supporting practitioners designing new environmentally
mineralizing chemicals and pharmaceuticals. This would also result
in a much faster and less expensive process than starting with repetitive
synthesis and subsequent experimental testing to improve the compounds’
properties.