Chemistry for Sustainable Development
Sustainable chemistry designs useful function while reducing material, energy, hazard, exposure, persistence, and waste across the full life cycle.
1. Systems thinking and green chemistry
A product is not sustainable merely because one stage is efficient. Evaluate need, raw materials, synthesis, formulation, transport, use, collection, reuse, recycling, treatment, and final disposal. Prevention is preferred because waste that is never formed requires no later separation or treatment. Useful metrics include yield, atom economy, mass of waste per mass of product, energy and water per unit function, recycled content, persistence, and hazard.
$\text{Atom economy}=\frac{\text{molar mass of desired product}}{\text{total molar mass of stoichiometric reactants}}\times100\%$. It measures theoretical incorporation of reactant atoms, not actual yield. A process can have high atom economy but low yield, or vice versa.