The Green Chemistry and Engineering Conference Goes Virtual!
Scientific conferences have been casualties of the Coronavirus pandemic, with plans for most in-person meetings through summer of 2020 being cancelled. The Green Chemistry and Engineering Conference (GC&E) was to be held in Seattle WA from June 16-18, but in April the organizers at the ACS Green Chemistry Institute decided to transition the conference to an online virtual event. This was fantastic news as it meant that all the programming (keynotes, technical sessions, expo) that had been in planning since last fall could still be offered to the green chemistry community. Best of all, registration for the online meeting would now be made FREE!
What is it?
The ACS Green Chemistry and Engineering Conference bills itself as the premier meeting for scientists and engineers working in green and sustainable chemistry or chemical engineering. I would agree with this! Organized by the Green Chemistry Institute (GCI) of the American Chemical Society, it has been held annually for the last 23 years. The conference consists of an intensive program of keynote talks, technical sessions, posters, and lots of networking and social events held over three days. It is my favorite conference as it attracts a range of attendees including leading academics, researchers in industry, green chemistry advocates from various organizations and in government, and entrepreneurs. The chance to learn about green chemistry directly from so many experts with different perspectives and experiences is in my opinion one of the main strengths of the conference.
The last few years of the conference have also seen an expansion in the number and diversity of technical sessions that are offered. Last year’s GC&E Conference featured over 40 technical sessions (this is fit into the schedule by running 4-6 sessions in parallel over three days). The sessions range from the purely technical (e.g., advances in catalysis, green solvents, etc.), to those focusing on education and curriculum development, to those dealing with implementation of green chemistry in industry. In addition to a traditional poster session, the conference has for the last few years featured a New Product Showcase. This is a chance for companies and entrepreneurs to show off innovations and products that they are bringing to market. There is always a lot going on at the GC&E and there is never a shortage of great events, interesting sessions, and speakers to take in.
What is the plan for the virtual conference?
The virtual GC&E conference will now take place over five days from Monday, June 15 to Friday, June 19. The conference keynote talks will happen in mid-morning followed by poster sessions over the noon-hour. The technical sessions are all scheduled for the afternoons. An overview of the schedule can be found on the conference website. To deal with the logistics of running a virtual conference, the talks for the technical sessions will be presented as recordings by the speakers. To facilitate discussion, the technical sessions will each have a built-in 20 minutes of Q&A and discussion that will be run live by the session organizers. While it may not be quite as interactive as an in-person conference, it will still be a great opportunity to learn from leading innovators in the community and to participate in the discussion. Did I mention that the registration is also FREE?
A focus on collaborations
I’ve been involved in the GC&E Conference both as an attendee and a session organizer for the last four years. For this year’s conference, I have been working with Laura Reyes (Royal Society for Chemistry), Saskia van Bergen (Washington State Dept. of Ecology), Amy Cannon (Beyond Benign), and Robert Giraud (Chemours, University of Delaware) to organize “Achieving System-Wide Collaboration by Design,” a session that will explore how high impact collaborative projects can be built across the green chemistry community. The session will feature presentations from leaders and organizers of diverse collaborative efforts ranging across industry groups, academia, education, and entrepreneurship. The session will also include two 40-min interactive discussions where participants and speakers will be invited to explore key elements of successful collaborations and contribute to an understanding of how better collaborative efforts can be designed to advance green chemistry.
This session will be happening on Friday, June 19.
Who will be presenting?
We have been extremely fortunate to assemble a fantastic line-up of speakers. Our session will include presentations from Christoph Krumm (Sironix Renewables), Scott Echols (ZDHC Roadmap to Zero Programme), Sally Edwards (Green Chemistry and Commerce Council), Isamir Martinez (ACS GCI Pharmaceutical Roundtable), Jason Locklin (New Materials Institute, University of Georgia), and Natalie O’Neil (Beyond Benign).
Christoph Krumm is a cofounder and the CEO of Sironix Renewables, a startup developing new, environmentally friendly surfactants for use in consumer products. Christoph will share perspectives on the key collaborative efforts that have been critical to growing Sironix Renewables, including partnerships with national labs, work with academia, and participation in the Nouryon Imagine Chemistry Challenge. Sironix has been a very interesting company to watch so this should be a great presentation.
Scott Echols is the Programme Director for the ZDHC Roadmap to Zero Programme, a non-profit organization that is working with fashion brands, textile manufacturers and chemical suppliers, to reduce the chemical footprint of the textile and footwear industries. The number chemicals and suppliers involved in making modern textiles huge, so this is a major collaborative effort. Scott will talk about how this collaboration works and how the organization is taking a systems-based approach to using safer chemicals and improve sustainability in these industries.
Sally Edwards is the Director of Retailer Engagement for the Green Chemistry and Commerce Council (GC3). She coordinates the work of the GC3’s Retail Leadership Council, a network of leading retailers (including Amazon, Amazon, Target, Walmart among others) that is working to promote the use of safer materials and chemicals across the supply chain for their products. The Retail Leadership Council has put together a roadmap that describes key green chemistry needs and priorities in various sectors and a path toward transparency in the use of chemicals. Sally will be describing details of this impactful work and the challenges of maintaining a large collaborative effort.
Natalie O’Neil is the Program Manager for Higher Education at Beyond Benign, a non-profit organization dedicated to developing and disseminating resources for green chemistry education. Natalie has been involved in developing Beyond Benign’s Toxicology for Chemists program which seeks to integrate essential toxicology into the university chemistry curriculum so that future chemists can design compounds with less toxicity and better safety profiles. Natalie has worked with numerous experts in industry and academia across in numerous disciplines and she will be sharing the key elements that made this collaborative project a success.
Isamir Martinez is the Program Manager for Scientific Alliances and Business Engagement at the ACS Green Chemistry Institute. She will be presenting her work with the ACS Green Chemistry Institute’s Pharmaceutical Roundtable. Since its foundation in 2005, the Pharmaceutical Roundtable has worked to promote and facilitate the implementation of green chemistry and green engineering principles across the entire pharmaceutical industry. Isamir will be discussing the key programs the Pharmaceutical Roundtable runs and how the members have come together in this industry-wide collaborative effort.
Jason Locklin is a professor and the Director of the New Materials Institute at the University of Georgia. Jason’s work is multidisciplinary and involves numerous collaborations with industry. In this presentation, Jason will describe his group’s efforts toward developing biodegradable and compostable materials for use in food packaging. This effort has necessitated building collaborations with key players across the entire life cycle of these materials, including material suppliers, brands, and waste-management companies. Jason will share insight into how he works with these diverse groups to better understand factors affecting biodegradability of these materials and use this information to create better solutions.
The interactive discussion portion of the session will allow for a detailed Q&A with presenters and we will also explore some important themes to come out of these presentations. Some themes we aim to cover include: What are best practices for structuring a collaborative project? How do collaborators deal with and navigate instances of conflict? What other collaborations are currently needed in green chemistry?
We are excited to see this session through to being presented next month and we would be excited to have you join us! There is no reason not to register for the conference (it’s FREE!) and we anticipate a lively discussion that we hope will benefit the green chemistry community. See you there (virtually)!