Green Chemistry Education in the News:
Select a Category
First Signer in Sweden – Welcome Stockholm University
Beyond Benign is excited to welcome Stockholm University to our Green Chemistry Commitment program. Stockholm University is the first university in Sweden to become a Green Chemistry Commitment signer.
Stockholm University joined the Commitment in January 2020. Despite the ever-changing and challenging times in higher education due to the ongoing pandemic, they are off and running with their Commitment to advance and promote Green Chemistry education. The university has a Master’s program in Sustainable Chemistry aimed to equip students with the knowledge on how to assess chemical syntheses and processing routes. Graduates will have a comprehensive understanding of how to design sustainable materials and chemicals and above all learn the fundamentals of green and sustainable chemistry. Learn more about the program below:
Check out the Stockholm University Who’s Committed Profile to learn more about this institution and the Master’s program in Sustainable Chemistry.
![](https://www.beyondbenign.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/News-Page-4-1.png)
First Signer in Sweden – Welcome Stockholm University
March 1, 2021
Beyond Benign is excited to welcome Stockholm University to our Green Chemistry Commitment program. Stockholm University is the first university in Sweden to become a Green Chemistry Commitment signer. Stockholm […]
Categories: Green Chemistry Education, Higher-Ed
First Signer in West Virginia and Second HBCU Joins the Commitment – Welcome WVSU
Beyond Benign is excited to welcome West Virginia State University (WVSU) to our Green Chemistry Commitment program. WVSU is the first university in West Virginia and the second of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) to become a Green Chemistry Commitment signer.
West Virginia State University joined the Commitment in December 2020. Despite the ever-changing and challenging times in higher education due to the ongoing pandemic, they are off and running with their Commitment to advance and promote Green Chemistry education. At WVSU, Green Chemistry is promoted in classrooms, student extracurricular activities, and departmental outreach into the surrounding community. We congratulate the West Virginia State University ACS Student Chapter on being a Green Chemistry Student Chapter Award winner in 2019-2020 and look forward to seeing what’s next for WVSU students, faculty, and staff.
Check out the West Virginia State University Who’s Committed Profile to learn more about this institution and its departmental aim!
![](https://www.beyondbenign.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/News-Page-WVSU.png)
First Signer in West Virginia and Second HBCU Joins the Commitment – Welcome WVSU
February 8, 2021
Beyond Benign is excited to welcome West Virginia State University (WVSU) to our Green Chemistry Commitment program. WVSU is the first university in West Virginia and the second of Historically […]
Categories: Green Chemistry Education, Higher-Ed
TU Berlin becomes the first European university to sign the Green Chemistry Commitment
Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin) recently signed Beyond Benign’s Green Chemistry Commitment! “We are proud and delighted to have signed up to this commitment,” says Professor Dr. Martin Oestreich, managing director of the Institute of Chemistry at TU Berlin. “It makes clear our intention and creative drive to contribute to a sustainable society using our research findings in chemistry, a process we will start in our teaching.”
Read more about TU Berlin and the announcement about their recent signing here
View the Technische Universität Berlin Who’s Committed profile here
![](https://www.beyondbenign.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/news-page-image-1.png)
TU Berlin becomes the first European university to sign the Green Chemistry Commitment
January 26, 2021
Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin) recently signed Beyond Benign’s Green Chemistry Commitment! “We are proud and delighted to have signed up to this commitment,” says Professor Dr. Martin Oestreich, managing […]
Categories: Green Chemistry Education, Higher-Ed
Beyond Benign Launches Its Green Chemistry Commitment 25×25 Initiative
Green chemistry nonprofit spearheads new sustainability campaign to ensure 25 percent of graduating chemists have a background in green chemistry by 2025
WILMINGTON, Mass., Jan. 21, 2021 – Beyond Benign, a green chemistry education nonprofit, today announced the launch of its Green Chemistry Commitment (GCC) 25×25 Initiative, working to ensure that 25 percent of graduating chemists in the US have a background in green chemistry by 2025 with the support of Beyond Benign partner Dow (NYSE: DOW). The initiative comes at a time when today’s societal challenges are immense, as articulated through the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).
Beyond Benign’s Green Chemistry Commitment (GCC) is dedicated to integrating green chemistry and toxicology concepts into chemistry programs with the goal of providing students with the skills to design chemical products and processes to reduce human and environmental hazards. With 64 US signers to date, accounting for 8% of graduating chemists, the GCC program is working to create a systemic change in chemistry education, inspiring additional institutions to pursue and integrate green chemistry. With this new initiative of ensuring 25 percent of chemistry students graduate with a background in green chemistry, Beyond Benign is taking new action to extend the GCC reach and resources to achieve this goal over the next four years.
“We believe that by supporting educators and students to teach and learn green chemistry, we are equipping the next generation of scientists and citizens to design and select products that support both human health and the environment,” says Amy Cannon, Director and Co-Founder of Beyond Benign. “With chemistry at the foundation of any sustainable solution, we are excited about the potential this initiative brings to build a critical mass of green chemists in the workforce.
To achieve the ambitious goal of preparing the workforce for sustainable action, per the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDG 4.7), Beyond Benign will provide resources and support to interested institutions. This support includes an assessment of current chemistry and green chemistry programs, recommended lessons to incorporate into their curriculum and labs, an annual Green Chemistry Commitment Summit to bring all signers together, financial resources and on-going support for mentors, teachers, faculty and staff.
“It is imperative that our incoming workforce is prepared to design, create and produce sustainable solutions for the well-being of humanity,” says Eunice Heath, Corporate Director of Sustainability for Dow. “Through Beyond Benign’s aggressive GCC 25×25 initiative, we will be able to make a lasting impact on education, science and the global market.”
Since 2007, Beyond Benign has integrated green chemistry into K-12 and higher education institutions through teacher training, lesson plans, community networks, webinars, and events. Institutions that are interested in incorporating green chemistry in their classrooms and labs can inquire about participating in the Green Chemistry Commitment by visiting the Beyond Benign website to learn more.
About Beyond Benign:
Beyond Benign, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, envisions a world where the chemical building blocks of products used every day are healthy and safe for humans and the environment. Beyond Benign is fostering a green chemistry education community empowered to transform chemistry education for a sustainable future. Beyond Benign’s continuum of sustainable science educational programs including, teacher and faculty training and curriculum development from K-20 are helping to build the next generation of scientists and citizens with the skills and knowledge to create and choose products that are safe for human health and the environment.
Over the past 13 years, Beyond Benign has an extensive history of service, having trained over 6,000 K-12 teachers in sustainable science and green chemistry, designed over 200 open-access lessons, reached over 25,000 youth and community members through outreach, & partnered with 75 universities to transform chemistry education. Together we can catalyze the development of green technological innovations that result in safer products and processes in support of a sustainable, healthy society.
Find us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and on LinkedIn.
Press Contact:
Nicki Wiggins, Director of Development
Beyond Benign
Nicki_Wiggins@beyondbenign.org
978-229-5443
![](https://www.beyondbenign.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/News-Page_25X25_PR-1.png)
Beyond Benign Launches Its Green Chemistry Commitment 25×25 Initiative
January 21, 2021
Green chemistry nonprofit spearheads new sustainability campaign to ensure 25 percent of graduating chemists have a background in green chemistry by 2025 WILMINGTON, Mass., Jan. 21, 2021 – Beyond Benign, […]
Categories: Green Chemistry Education, Higher-Ed, Press Releases
A new initiative to support green chemistry education: The Green Chemistry Teaching and Learning Community
The American Chemical Society (ACS) Green Chemistry Institute and Beyond Benign are pleased to announce the establishment of a new initiative to support green chemistry education: The Green Chemistry Teaching and Learning Community.
For more than 20 years, educators from a wide variety of institutions, from K-12 to higher education universities and colleges, have been developing, collaborating and sharing green chemistry education resources organically. This community of practice grows yearly, with many institutions now engaging in some form of green chemistry activity.
However, many challenges continue to hinder the adoption of green chemistry in educational settings. Common challenges include lack of time, lack of resources, a congested curriculum, faculty and department buy-in, misconceptions and an overall lack of support.
To overcome these challenges, Beyond Benign and the ACS Green Chemistry Institute will leverage networks and expertise to move our Community of Practice towards a Community of Transformation. Communities of Transformation have a demonstrated ability to empower systemic change in STEM fields through a multi-pronged approach utilizing both in-person and online support.
The Green Chemistry Teaching and Learning Community (GCTLC) will provide the online hub needed to support the adoption of green chemistry and hasten the transformation of chemistry education. We envision a fully-supported site that houses educational resources and provides an interactive global networking and collaboration platform. On the GCTLC platform, community members will be able to readily find vetted resources for teaching core chemistry concepts with a green chemistry lens, discuss approaches with like-minded colleagues, and hear a diversity of ideas needed to advance chemistry education to a place where students are prepared to take sustainable action.
The Green Chemistry Teaching and Learning Community will be developed and launched over the course of three years. We are pleased to announce today $250,000 in seed funding from the Argosy Foundation, which enables us to launch the project in 2021 while we seek additional funding from grants and corporate sponsorship.
We hope this news brings you something to look forward to after a difficult year for all of us around the world. As we build the GCTLC leadership team and staff the project, we will be sharing updates and soliciting your valued opinions. Born out of collaboration, the GCTLC will ultimately be your platform, and we look forward to your involvement in the years to come.
Stay safe and stay green!
Jennifer MacKellar, Education Program Manager, ACS Green Chemistry Institute
Amy Cannon, Founder, Beyond Benign
On behalf of the ACS Green Chemistry Institute and Beyond Benign
Follow ACS GCI and Beyond Benign on social media to get timely updates on this project and others:
Beyond Benign: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn
ACS GCI: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn
![](https://www.beyondbenign.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/News-Page-1-2.png)
A new initiative to support green chemistry education: The Green Chemistry Teaching and Learning Community
December 18, 2020
The American Chemical Society (ACS) Green Chemistry Institute and Beyond Benign are pleased to announce the establishment of a new initiative to support green chemistry education: The Green Chemistry Teaching and […]
Categories: Green Chemistry Education, Higher-Ed, K-12, Newsletters
First Kenyan University to Sign the Green Chemistry Commitment – Kabete National Polytechnic
The Kabete National Polytechnic is the first university in Keyna to become a Green Chemistry Commitment signer, and it’s our pleasure to welcome this institution to our program!
The Polytechnic joined the Commitment in June 2020 and despite the ever-changing and challenging times in higher education due to the ongoing pandemic, they are off and running with their Commitment to advance and promote Green Chemistry education. At Kabete National Polytechnic, Green Chemistry is treated as an ‘emerging issue’ and therefore is covered in theory under the most diverse chemistry and toxicology classes. Students are also encouraged to undertake Green Chemistry projects during their final year of research.
Check out the Kabete National Polytechnic Who’s Committed Profile to learn more about this institution and its departmental aim!
![](https://www.beyondbenign.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/News-Page-2-1.png)
First Kenyan University to Sign the Green Chemistry Commitment – Kabete National Polytechnic
October 28, 2020
The Kabete National Polytechnic is the first university in Keyna to become a Green Chemistry Commitment signer, and it’s our pleasure to welcome this institution to our program! The Polytechnic […]
Categories: Higher-Ed
The Lemelson-MIT Program and Beyond Benign Introduce New JV InvenTeams Activity Guide on Green Chemistry
For More Information:
Stephanie Martinovich
Lemelson-MIT Program
(617) 258-0632
The JV InvenTeams Green Chemistry Activity Guide encourages students to use green chemistry principles to invent bioplastics.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., October 20, 2020 – Today the Lemelson–MIT Program, in collaboration with Beyond Benign, announced the launch of the Junior Varsity (JV) InvenTeams Green Chemistry Activity Guide. JV InvenTeams activity guides are free sets of curricula that are aligned with Next Generation Science Standards and designed to cultivate inventive curiosity and skills in sixth through tenth grade students traditionally lacking access to hands-on enrichment opportunities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The green chemistry guide is the ninth JV InvenTeams activity guide to be created and the first to be curated by both Beyond Benign and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) community.
The launch of the new guide is synchronous with this week’s National Chemistry Week coordinated by the American Chemical Society, reinforcing the value of chemistry in everyday life by teaching students that green chemistry principles can be used to invent products and materials that reduce harmful impacts on humans and the environment. The guide demonstrates these principles and invites students to explore the life cycle of conventional petroleum-based plastics and consider how each stage of the life cycle could be improved upon to make the process more sustainable. Students are also asked to develop sustainable bioplastic prototypes made from benign materials. They use hands-on skills to measure and safely handle wet and dry materials, and formulate and optimize their bioplastics. The guide, available in both educator and student versions, has already been piloted in schools and encouragingly demonstrated to students that working with green chemistry can positively impact daily life and provide for a more sustainable future by addressing some of the biggest challenges plaguing society today.
High school student Ben Barnes, along with his teacher Loren Kristick, are from Energy Institute High School in Houston, Texas, one of the schools that piloted the Green Chemistry activity guide. “It was really interesting how much we were able to learn about this subset of materials that we call bioplastics,” said Barnes. “Throughout the course of this project we were able to learn how bioplastics are made, learn how they’re applied and actually in our seventh meeting, we were able to make a bioplastic prototype…and that honestly gave me a lot of hope about what individual people can do to combat the dire plastic crisis of today.”
Erin Mayer, a teacher at Casey Middle School in Boulder, CO will be working with the guide this year in order to explore green chemistry principles with her students. Mayer is the winner of a contest that Beyond Benign posed to teachers nationwide, asking them to write an essay or record a video explanation of how they hope inventing with green chemistry will impact their students’ learning. Mayer’s submission won her and her students a $425-valued classroom kit that supports the JV InvenTeams Green Chemistry guide. “I am so excited to implement green chemistry into all of our chemistry initiatives this year, including bioplastics, because my student learners will develop as forward thinking innovators and inventors,” says Mayer.
“We are very excited to collaborate with Beyond Benign on this new JV InvenTeams activity guide, especially because this guide focuses on such an important topic: sustainability,” said Stephanie Couch, executive director of the Lemelson-MIT Program. “The earlier we can impart the importance of developing skills in areas like green chemistry to invent in a more sustainable way, the better prepared students will be to tackle challenges today and into the future.”
“We are thrilled to launch this guide in partnership with the Lemelson-MIT Program,” said John Warner Co-Founder of Beyond Benign and a Founder of the field of Green Chemistry. “Chemistry is at the core of solving local and global challenges through the design of better molecular building blocks. This guide places students in the role of the inventor, allowing them to problem solve through chemistry.”
The Lemelson-MIT Program and Beyond Benign are supported by The Lemelson Foundation.
ABOUT THE LEMELSON-MIT PROGRAM
The Lemelson-MIT Program celebrates outstanding inventors and inspires young people to pursue creative lives and careers through invention. Jerome H. Lemelson, one of U.S. history’s most prolific inventors, and his wife Dorothy founded the Lemelson-MIT Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1994. It is funded by The Lemelson Foundation and administered by the School of Engineering at MIT, an institution with a strong ongoing commitment to creating meaningful opportunities for K-12 STEM education. For more information, visit lemelson.mit.edu.
ABOUT BEYOND BENIGN
Beyond Benign, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, envisions a world where the chemical building blocks of products used every day are healthy and safe for humans and the environment. Beyond Benign is fostering a green chemistry education community empowered to transform chemistry education for a sustainable future. Beyond Benign’s continuum of sustainable science educational programs including, teacher and faculty training, and curriculum development from K-20 are helping to build the next generation of scientists and citizens with the skills and knowledge to create and choose products that are safe for human health and the environment. For more information, visit https://www.beyondbenign.org/.
ABOUT THE LEMELSON FOUNDATION
The Lemelson Foundation uses the power of invention to improve lives, by inspiring and enabling the next generation of inventors and invention based enterprises to promote economic growth in the US and social and economic progress for the poor in developing countries. Established by prolific US inventor Jerome Lemelson and his wife Dorothy in 1992, to date the Foundation has provided or committed more than $175 million in grants and PRIs in support of its mission. For more information, visit http://lemelson.org.
# # #
![](https://www.beyondbenign.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/News-Page-2-2.png)
The Lemelson-MIT Program and Beyond Benign Introduce New JV InvenTeams Activity Guide on Green Chemistry
October 20, 2020
For More Information: Stephanie Martinovich Lemelson-MIT Program (617) 258-0632 Smartino@mit.edu The JV InvenTeams Green Chemistry Activity Guide encourages students to use green chemistry principles to invent bioplastics. CAMBRIDGE, Mass., October […]
Categories: K-12, Press Releases
Science in Action: Sticking with Bioplastics
As part of National Chemistry Week, our very own Janie Butler presenting how to make bioplastics in your very own kitchen. With our increase in reliance on plastics, why not start thinking about how we can start making them differently? Through her presentation you will learn how to make your own window cling. In collaboration with Museum of Science, this presentation was both engaging and entertaining. Watch here.
![](https://www.beyondbenign.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/News-Page.png)
Science in Action: Sticking with Bioplastics
October 19, 2020
As part of National Chemistry Week, our very own Janie Butler presenting how to make bioplastics in your very own kitchen. With our increase in reliance on plastics, why not […]
Categories: K-12
Science in Action: Making Glue
In collaboration with the Museum of Science, two undergrads at Gordon College, Madi Morin and Alexa Weindolf, shared how to presented how to make two ‘green’ glues at home. They tackled hard questions like, how can we be inspired by nature to create “greener” products? Watch along side of them to learn how we can use chemistry to make an environmentally friendly glue at home. With the theme of this year’s National Chemistry Week being sticky, it was the perfect fit! Check out the video of them presenting here.
![](https://www.beyondbenign.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/News-Page-1-1.png)
Science in Action: Making Glue
October 19, 2020
In collaboration with the Museum of Science, two undergrads at Gordon College, Madi Morin and Alexa Weindolf, shared how to presented how to make two ‘green’ glues at home. They […]
Categories: K-12
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- …
- 15
- Next Page »