An unlikely bifurcation: history of sustainable (but not Green) chemistry

Abstract

The concept of green chemistry dominated the imagination of environmentally-minded chemists over the last thirty years. The conceptual frameworks laid by the American Environmental Protection Agency scholars in the 1990s constitute today the core of a line of thinking aimed at transforming chemistry into a sustainable science. And yet, in the shadow of green chemistry, a broader, even if less popular, concept of sustainable chemistry started taking shape. Initially, it was either loosely associated with green chemistry or left undefined as a distinct but generaly different approach. In such a vague form, it was endorsed by the organizations such as OECD and the IUPAC in the late 1990s. It was not until the 2010s however, when it solidified as a separate more embracing and more overarching tradition that could compete with green chemistry by offering insights that the latter lacked. Sustainable chemistry seeks to transcend the narrow focus on chemical synthesis and embrace a much more holistic view of chemical activities including social responsibility and sustainable business models. Due to an interesting historical coincidence, it was in Germany where sustainable chemistry took roots and became institutionalized for the first time. It was thanks to German exceptionalism and the unwillingness of German scholars to embrace the “green” terminology originating from the US, the concept of sustainable chemistry could safely mature and develop in the German-speaking world, before reaching a high degree of formalization with dedicated journals, founding articles, and programmatic principles aspiring to transform the entire chemical enterprise in the years to come.

High School Sustainable and Green Chemistry: Historical–Epistemological and Pedagogical Considerations

“…Moreover, historical research contributed to distinguishing these two fields. According to Krasnodębski [10], the history of green chemistry has garnered attention from scholars in the history of science, social sciences, and STS (Science, Technology and Society) studies, whereas the history of sustainable chemistry is largely untold. Historians of science and STS scholars play a key role in contextualizing and historicizing the relevant terminology [10].…”

“…More careful studies show a bifurcation in relation to the birth and evolution of green chemistry and sustainable chemistry [10], and the many origins of green chemistry, depending on the country considered (for example, EPA researchers were driving forces in the formation of this new field in the US, whereas in the UK, the deteriorating public image of chemistry was decisive; in the Netherlands, the search for renewable resources and raw materials mostly guided the process [68]).…”