GREEN CHEMISTRY ALTERNATIVES: THE PATH TO A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
The Resource Efficient and Cleaner Production Centre continues to actively promote the Green Chemistry (GreenChem) concept in Ukraine and introduce its approaches and practices to all stakeholders. Therefore, another online information event ‘GREEN CHEMISTRY ALTERNATIVES: THE PATH TO A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE’ was organized (25 October 2024) as part of the Global Green Chemistry Innovation and Network Program (GreenChem) funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
The event aimed to introduce green start-ups to the target audience, provide tools to promote green chemistry development, and demonstrate how green chemistry is transforming production processes, opening up new business opportunities, and helping to create a greener and safer future for humanity.
Yurii Bondarenko, Deputy Head of Division – Head of the Pesticides and Agrochemicals Registration Division of the Environmental Safety Division, gave a welcome speech on behalf of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine. He noted that the Ministry is working to implement the provisions of the basic European technical regulations in chemical safety – CLP (Classification, Labelling, and Packaging of Chemicals) and REACH (Registration, Evaluation, and Authorisation of Chemicals). In addition, other components of the legislation are being developed to reduce risks to human health and the environment and encourage the chemical industry to move towards safer substances and green technologies, including the green chemistry principles implementation. All these changes reflect global trends and international standards adapted to the Ukrainian reality.
The Global Green Chemistry Innovation and Network Program was represented by its manager Lars Ratjen from the Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering, who provided general information about the program, its implementation progress in 6 countries, and its achievements and results to date.
Victoriia Zhovnir, Head of the Environmental and Chemical Safety Division at the Environmental Safety Division, also from the Ministry of Ecology, presented the national chemical safety system.
Olena Tabachuk, Program Manager of the Green Chemistry Business Accelerator at the RECP Centre, reported on the GreenChem progress in Ukraine. She introduced the participants to four areas of green chemistry development (business and industry, education and science, start-ups and innovation, and international initiatives). Among other things, Olena focused on the Green Chemistry Accelerator Programme, which will be launched at the end of this year and next year (2025) and will help to turn promising ideas in the field of green chemistry into successful businesses – it is a 3-month training program, mentoring, a demonstration day and innovation competitions Global Greenchem Hackathon, which is scheduled for 1-3 November 2024 (details of the hackathon here). The main objective of the hackathon is to find green, efficient, and cost-effective solutions to challenges faced by real industrial companies.
Oleksandr Khokhotva, a chemical management expert at the RECP Centre, spoke in detail about persistent organic pollutants (POPs) banned by the Stockholm Convention in 2004 and gave examples of alternatives in green chemistry. Oleksandr also encouraged participants to join the project as a demonstration company (click to submit).
Among others, international green chemistry experts were invited. Adelina Voutchkova, Director of Sustainable Development and Green Chemistry Institute, American Chemical Society, presented the Green Chemistry for Sustainability platform, spoke about its functionality and capabilities, and described the tools and incentives to boost green chemistry.
Thomas Jakl, Deputy Director General, Protection of the Environment and Circular Economy Directorate at the Austrian Federal Ministry for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation, and Technology, shared Austria’s experience in implementing Green Chemistry at the national level and provided real cases of this approach.
Onyeka Obiocha, Accelerator Programme Director, Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering of Yale University, spoke about the current challenges in the development of CC in the world, the need for accelerator programs, the potential for green start-ups and how to turn ideas into real businesses.
Mahlet Garedew, Innovation Program Manager, Air Company (USA), shared the company’s success story and offered revolutionary solutions for creating environmentally friendly products.
The participants of the event were inspired by the new ideas of the speakers and actively participated in the discussion.
More than 80 participants from all over Ukraine attended the event.
You can enjoy a video recording of the event here.
We invite everyone to join the Green Chemistry Hackathon!
Visit the RECP Centre YouTube channel to watch podcasts on green chemistry and many other interesting videos.
Organizers
The online event was organized by the RECP Centre in Ukraine in collaboration with the Center for Green Chemistry & Green Engineering at Yale University under GEF-funded UNIDO project “The Global GreenChem Innovation and Network Programme”.