The American Chemical Society (ACS) Green Chemistry Institute has partnered with the organization Beyond Benign to establish a new initiative ‘The Green Chemistry Teaching and Learning Community (GCTLC)‘ to support green chemistry education.

For more than 20 years, educators from a wide variety of institutions, from K-12 to higher education universities and colleges, have been developing, collaborating and sharing green chemistry education resources organically. This community of practice grows yearly, with many institutions now engaging in some form of green chemistry activity.

However, many challenges continue to hinder the adoption of green chemistry in educational settings. Common challenges include lack of time, lack of resources, a congested curriculum, faculty and department buy-in, misconceptions and an overall lack of support.

To overcome these challenges, Beyond Benign and the ACS Green Chemistry Institute will leverage networks and expertise to move our Community of Practice towards a Community of Transformation. Communities of Transformation have a demonstrated ability to empower systemic change in STEM fields through a multi-pronged approach utilizing both in-person and online support.

(GCTLC) will provide the online hub needed to support the adoption of green chemistry and hasten the transformation of chemistry education. The organizations envision a fully-supported site that houses educational resources and provides an interactive global networking and collaboration platform. On the GCTLC platform, community members will be able to readily find vetted resources for teaching core chemistry concepts with a green chemistry lens, discuss approaches with like-minded colleagues, and hear a diversity of ideas needed to advance chemistry education to a place where students are prepared to take sustainable action.

The Green Chemistry Teaching and Learning Community will be developed and launched over the course of three years. ACS and Beyond Benign recently received a $250,000 in seed funding from the Argosy Foundation, which enables the organizations to launch the project in 2021 while seeking additional funding from grants and corporate sponsorship.

ACS and Beyond Benign reported that it will be sharing updates and soliciting valued opinions from the industry as they build the GCTLC leadership team and staff the project.

Now if only my alma mater will initiate this type of green chemistry teaching…

Merry Green Christmas!