Cross-bridging green chemistry education and environmental chemistry education

Abstract

Green chemistry education has been the object of intensive attention, research and explorations in the last decades; environmental chemistry education has received alternating attention. Both green chemistry and environmental chemistry are concerned with the environment. Green chemistry focuses on pollution prevention at the source, to be pursued through changes in the production and handling of substances, as well as the nature of substances themselves, by envisaging the replacement of non-benign substances by more benign ones. Environmental chemistry focuses on the effects of pollutants, thus providing indications on the substances that require more urgent replacement and more effective measures to prevent them from entering the environment. At education level, it is important to acquaint students with the domain of these two areas, their possible synergies and the expected ensuing benefits. The present work outlines collaboration and convergence pathways, considering the green chemistry principles and also the complexity of the implementation features of pollution prevention. It is concluded that an educational approach bridging the two perspectives is crucial to make future chemists, as well as other professionals, more ready for the multidisciplinary requirements of sustainability discourses and their operational components.