Dr Ho Chee Cheong

The role of green chemistry in sustainable development C.C. Ho University Tunku Abdul Rahman Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia cchoho2001@yahoo.com Green Packaging, Bangkok 15 June 2012

Outline • Impact of anthropogenic activities • Club of Rome: “Limits to Growth” • Sustainable development: low carbon economy • Role of green chemistry • Sustainable packaging • The way forward

World population • • • • • • •

Just crossed 7 billion mark on 31.10.2011 World population growth rate at 1.2% Population Growing at 83 millions annually Projected to add another billion in 12 years human are ferocious consumers 925 million hungry people in 2010 How large a population can our Earth sustain?

Rapid growth of world population in recent years

Impact of intense anthropogenic activities (1) • Increasing population ► urbanization • Intensive logging and land clearing: loss of natural carbon sink and water catchment, deforestation, soil erosion, flooding, landslide • Intensive cultivation of food crops: chemical fertilizers and pesticides • Health: respiratory and infectious diseases

Impact of intense anthropogenic activities (2) • Immense demand on natural resources: hasten rate of depletion of irreplaceable resources - fossil fuels, minerals, fresh and clean water • Deterioration of the environment: air, water and land (destruction of natural habitat and species - biodiversity) • Climate change - severe weather, global warming

Impact of anthropogenic activities on the environment Acidification Resource depletion Human toxicity

Eutrophication

Photochemical ozone depletion

Global warming

Impact of climate change • Health – air-quality, infectious diseases, mortality • Agriculture – loss of arable land (soil salinity, desertification), irrigation demands, declining yields • Global warming: rising sea level - inundation of coastal land and community • Biodiversity –loss of natural habitat and species • Water resources - quality and declining supply • Severe weather, droughts

Impact of Global warming

IPCC AR4 Synthesis Report 2007

Unabated climate change is likely to lead to more extreme weather events

Climate change and human health – risk and responses

Limits to Growth

Published in 1972

/Industrial goods

The 5 interrelated elements used in modeling the Limits to Growth

Messages from Limits to Growth • Message 1: The human ecological footprint grew rapidly from 1900 to 1972 • Message 2: The human ecological footprint can not continue to grow at the same rate for more than a hundred years from 1972 • Message 3: It is possible, and even likely, that the human ecological footprint will overshoot the sustainable limits (=the carrying capacity) of Planet Earth • Message 4: Once sustainable limits have been overshot, contraction is unavoidable • Message 5: Overshoot can be avoided through forward looking global policy • Message 6: It is important to act as soon as possible, that is in 1975

The scenarios • Conclusions : delays in global decision making would cause human economy to overshoot planetary limits before growth in human ecological footprint slowed • Once in unsustainable territory, human society would be forced to reduce its rate of resource use and its rate of emissions • Contraction could only happen in two ways ► through “managed decline” organized by humanity ► through “collapse” induced by nature or the market • Only thing that could not happen was for world society to remain forever in unsustainable territory, using more of nature every year than nature produces during that year

Real threat : overshoot and collapse

Donella H. Meadows, Dennis L. Meadows, Jorgen Randers and William W. Behrens III, (1972) Limits to Growth

The tragedy of the commons is a dilemma arising from situation in which multiple individuals, acting independently and rationally consulting their own self-interest, will ultimately deplete a shared limited resource, even when it is clear that it is not in anyone's long-term interest for this to happen.

First described in article by ecologist Garrett Hardin published in Journal Science in 1968 We are constantly making use of goods, space, and resources that are also available to others. The personal benefit of using these “commons� is clear, and on an individual level, the impact made is seemingly trivial.

A rational individual quickly concludes that the benefits of the common can be enjoyed, without causing any more than the slightest damage to it, yet as a group, we wreak havoc.

Environment and Development: The Tragedy of the Commons

Sustainable economy and development – Low carbon economy

The three pillars of sustainability

« Sustainable Development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs… » Brundtland Rapport, 1987

Stakeholders of low carbon economy

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sell low carbon products

Consumers

Industries Demand low carbon products

Mitigation measures • Government policies and Regulatory requirements • Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) • Reduce, reuse and recycle • Education: Public understanding and awareness • Remediation and rehabilitation

Approaches to be adopted - Adopt cleaner production: minimizing waste, elimination of hazardous substance usage, energy efficient processes - Reduce raw material usage - Complete change in consumption habits - Regulatory measures and government policies â– green purchasing policy â– eco-design â– specific labeling: eco-label, energy efficiency label, etc - Increase public understanding and awareness - Increase R&D effort on environmental sciences

Sustainable consumption and production • Not about consuming less • About consuming differently and efficiently • About having an improved quality of life

• About having an integrated preventive strategy on processes, products and services - to increase overall efficiency - to reduce risk to human and the environment

Sustainable production A holistic approach that emphasizes on minimizing environmental impacts of a product over its LIFE-CYCLE Consumption Design and Manufacture

Distribution

Raw materials

Product use Fuels

Mining

Electricity

Disposal

Transportation

End-of-life

Cleaner production principles • Precautionary – action to avoid damage to environment • Prevention at source – use safe, non-hazardous chemicals • Transparency - allow public access to information • Holistic approach – lifecycle of products (cradle to grave) • Materials efficiency • Reduce energy usage • Zero waste generation

Carbon footprint • A carbon footprint is "the total set of greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions caused by an organization, event or product”.

• It is a measure of GHGs (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxides and CFCs) emitted.

• Measured as the amount of CO2, or its equivalent of other GHGs. • Emission produced directly or indirectly over the lifecycle of a product, material or service i.e. from cradle to grave (including production, utilization and disposal)

Lifecycle assessment • a fair, holistic and integrated assessment on GHGs emission for ►raw material processing and production, manufacture, distribution, use and disposal/recycling including all intervening transportation steps necessary or caused by the product's existence.

• The sum of all those steps – or phases – is the life cycle of the product (cradle to grave). The concept also can be used to optimize the environmental performance of a single product (eco-design) or to optimize the environmental performance of a company.

• Procedure part of ISO14000 environmental management standards : ISO14040:2006, 14044:2006; ISO 14025, ISO 14064s

Working with PepsiCo and Walkers Carbon Trust 2008 CTS058.pdf

Role of chemistry in sustainable development

Green chemistry • Refers to movement towards environmentally acceptable chemical processes and products • Encompasses education, R&D, industrial practices and commercial applications across chemicals supply chain • To be achieved through eco-friendly technologies • Vital to sustainable development • Term first coined by US EPA in the 1990s (book

by Anastas and Warner followed) • US Presidential Green Chemistry Awards launched in mid1990 • Green Chemistry Network established 1998

Materials efficiency • Better chemical reaction efficiency • Better catalyst for better yield • Supported by innovative synthesis route with minimum steps and materials • One-pot synthesis • Miniaturization

Safe Environmentally acceptable

Renewable feedstock No waste

Ideal synthesis

Simple separation

100% yield Atom efficiency

One step

Features of the “ideal synthesis�

Number publications per year

Year

Reporting on Green Chemistry and Sustainable Chemistry concepts respectively since 1995 Sustainable Industrial Processes. Edited by F. Cavani, G. Centi, S. Perathoner, and F. Trifir贸 2009 WILEY-VCH Verlag

The principles of green chemistry • Waste prevention prefers to treatment or clean-up • Chemical synthesis should incorporate all starting materials • Chemical synthesis should not use or generate toxic substances • Chemical products should be designed to be non-toxic • Catalysts are superior to reagents • The use of auxiliaries should be minimized • Use low energy reaction in chemical syntheses • Use renewable, natural raw materials • Derivations should be minimized • Chemical products should degrade into innocuous products • Better control for chemical processes • Substances should have minimum potential for accidents

Sustainable and green alternative measures • Safer alternatives substitutes/feedstock: renewable, less toxic • Use of innocuous reagents: less hazardous and are catalytic in function • Employing natural processes: biosynthesis, biocatalyst with high selectivity and efficiency • Solvent-free system; no VOC, benign to human and environment or at least with ionic liquids • Design safer chemicals: minimize intrinsic toxicity of products without compromising on efficacy of function • Developing alternative reaction conditions: increase selectivity, minimal byproducts and without separation process where possible • Energy-saving and energy efficient processes and measures • Minimize water usage means less waste water to treat

Green vs sustainable chemistry • Green chemistry focuses on the design, manufacture, and use of chemicals and chemical processes that have little or no pollution potential or environmental risk, and are both economically and technologically feasible • Sustainable chemistry means the maintenance and continuation of an ecological-sound development ► sees chemistry as part of an integrated vision where chemistry, sustainability and innovation are three key components for the future of our society

The heart of green chemistry: concept of ‘reduction’

leads to the goal of triple bottom-line benefits of economic, environmental, and social improvements

Sustainable packaging

Common sights: packaging wastes

The high cost of waste

“Green concept” • For some: A great marketing point • For others: take sustainability seriously ► an environmental responsibility ► to think smart about efficiencies and reduce costs ► green concept makes sense

Diverse issues to address • Contents types: e.g. dry food, beverages and liquids, raw meats, perishables, electrical goods and home appliances • Diverse sizes, shapes, packaging conditions (special: sterile, clean environment and vacuum) and functional requirement • Packaging materials: bottles, non-permeable laminated plastics sheets, plastics trays and pouches, moulded rigid plastics foam, paper cartons, cardboard, waxed papers

Focus on packaging sustainability • Employ environmentally-sensitive methods in mitigation including ► down-gauging (reduce volume and weight); reusability; energy efficiency; renewal, recyclable and biodegradable materials; elimination of toxic ingredients, migration of contaminants and safety • Avoid over-packaged, cut packaging waste

Over-packaging

Examples on Green packaging • Used of meat-tray made from biopolymer based on high-amylose cornstarch, derived from annual harvesting of specialized non-GM (hybrid) corn • Will save more than 13 million KwH of energy, the equivalent of powering more than 2,000 Australian homes.

• will also cut greenhouse gas emissions by 5,000 tons, equivalent to planting more than 750,000 trees

Examples on Green packaging • Use of 100% phthalate-free plasticizer based on alkyl sulfonic ester, for dry and liquid food packaging • Other phthalate-free plasticizers include benzoates, citrates and trimellitates • Produce phthalate-free plasticisers from bio-based succinic acid starting 2012 by Lanxess. Claimed that production of succinic acid from fermentation of renewable sources is more energyefficient and cost-effective

The way forward

Green economy is Economy of 21st century • Sustainability is NOT a fashion or trend or a bandwagon • Green economy is about transformation for survival of humanity • Genuine green technology can only get bigger and stronger, a huge potential growth sector • Green technology and eco-design is an integral part of the driving force • A lot more is yet to be learnt, R&D is wide open, scope is unlimited • Chemistry plays a pivotal role in enabling the change

SET underpins success of sustainable development • Expansion on basic science and knowledge • Creative use of current knowledge • Innovative application of SET to address environmental issues • Synthesis of new substances: innocuous substitutes and environmentally friendly • Efficient process: energy and materials usage • Effective conversion of biomass to useful chemicals (e.g. bioplastics) and renewable energy

• At some point in time, humanity’s everincreasing resource consumption will meet the very real limits of a planet with finite natural resources. Limits are unavoidable • Beyond a certain point, growth becomes more of a problem than an advantage.

But economists generally don’t see things this way. Economists tend to ignore environmental limits Heinberg 2010

It is essential now to start changing our behavior

A collapsed world

Hopefully we can avert this

Thank you