Practical ways to embed green chemistry into a packed curriculum, part 1

In recent years, we’ve seen a positive shift towards incorporating sustainability into chemistry education. Documentaries such as Netflix’s The Plastic Detox shed light on unintended environmental, social and health impacts of chemical products and processes, and with them, the need to teach chemistry students to think about the wider impact of their work. 

For educators, this presents an opportunity to produce skilled synthetic and analytical chemists who are also equipped with the knowledge to design and evaluate chemistry with human well-being and environmental sustainability in mind. 

The challenge is not whether to include green chemistry into curricula, but how to do so within already crowded programmes.

Green chemistry is an approach to designing chemical processes and products that minimises the use and generation of hazardous substances, with an emphasis on preventing pollution and waste by design rather than remedying it. It promotes sustainability across the entire life cycle of products by using renewable or recycled raw materials and energy sources and considers the environmental and social trade-offs of new technologies early in development. It helps chemists contribute solutions that enable societies to continue developing safely, and is guided by the following core principles:

• The minimisation of wasted material and energy
• Safer synthesis
• Anticipation of the health and environmental impact of new chemicals 
• Design for circularity.

Rather than overhauling curricula, educators can adopt a range of targeted, intentional interventions that they can implement within existing structures to make a lasting impact on how students think as chemists. 

Use early year ‘lecture-workshops’ to establish core concepts

Even a small amount of timetable space in the early stages of an undergraduate chemistry degree can be an effective starting point. We implemented a three-hour Introduction to sustainability lecture-workshop for our first-year students. During this, they learn about the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, principles of green chemistry and selected green chemistry metrics. 

We avoided the temptation to include all aspects of green and sustainable chemistry at this early stage to prevent overwhelm and to allow these frameworks to be built on over time. The session takes place in the middle of the first year, so students have some experience of university-level chemistry. Our surveys collected before and after revealed a clear increase in the cohort’s interest, knowledge and confidence in applying the analytical tools taught during the session. 

Educators can ensure introductory sessions are relevant by linking them to current events or local case studies. Examples that have worked well connect chemistry to sustainability trade-offs and encourage students to think beyond simple “green = good” assumptions. 

For example, the transformation of biomass into platform chemicals allows students to explore the need for renewable carbon and hydrogen feedstocks while discussing issues such as land use change and the implications of switching to different platform chemicals and synthesis routes. 

Low-carbon energy technologies provide another example of tension: balancing the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from energy production against increased demand for metals and rare elements. By raising questions around the environmental and social impact of mining, elemental scarcity and supply-chain sustainability, this kind of case study helps students appreciate that a more sustainable solution in one context can create pressures elsewhere. 

• The long game: gamifying sustainability education
• How can we teach students about social value?
• Ease student climate anxiety through nature and community

Another example is the recovery and reuse of metals from waste, such as palladium from spent catalytic converters for reuse in catalysis. This case study links ideas of critical raw material supply and the impact of mining, while showing students that waste can be reframed as a valuable secondary resource in circular economy and life cycle thinking.

These sessions establish sustainability as a core aspect of practice by prompting students to discuss, compare thoughts and challenge each other.

In a recent first-year lecture-workshop, we tasked students with comparing two synthesis pathways to the same target material. First, we asked them to decide which route they thought was more sustainable based on the reaction schemes, with votes collected via an audience response system (for example, Mentimeter) to allow staff to track engagement. Groups of three to four students were then randomly assigned one of four sets of tasks involving qualitative and quantitative analysis of one of the routes. 

After 20 minutes, the groups shared their findings with the class, and the session concluded with each student voting again on which route they considered most sustainable. Many changed their minds over the course of the activity, highlighting that sustainable choices are not always obvious.

Build short tasks into existing teaching

A simple way to incorporate green chemistry is to embed short, self-directed reflective tasks into existing laboratory teaching. After completing an experiment in one of their first-year synthesis labs, we ask students to evaluate it against the principles of green chemistry.

This evaluation takes the form of a 500-word written reflection, but could lead to a more creative output such as an infographic. Whichever format is used, students should identify which principles were (or were not) addressed and think critically about what is “green” and what can be improved. 

This approach requires minimal additional teaching time. Educators can simply signpost students to digestible asynchronous existing teaching resources and infographics to encourage self-directed learning. The reflective nature encourages students to consider sustainability in a relevant context and to apply these principles when designing experiments in the future. Our students also carry out some quantitative analysis by applying green metrics to their own reaction results. This assessment is by an automatically marked online quiz, allowing multiple attempts with minimal staff input required.

By introducing core concepts and reflective tasks, educators can help students see chemistry not just as a technical discipline, but as one with responsibilities and global impacts. 

In the next part of this series, learn how to frame skills development around sustainability challenges, design specialist modules and cocreate curricula with students. 

Agnieszka Brandt-Talbot is an associate professor in sustainable materials chemistry. Euan D. Doidge is a principal teaching fellow and co-director of the Centre for Chemistry Education. Rebecca L. Jones is a teaching fellow and theme lead on sustainability. Laura Patel is a principal teaching fellow and theme lead on enhancing laboratory teaching. All work at Imperial College London.

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