Partnering for Greener Chemistry Education Globally: MilliporeSigma Announces Expanded Partnership With Beyond Benign
Green chemistry education provides chemists with a framework to design chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the generation of hazardous substances—which is key to creating a more sustainable future.
Despite green chemistry’s benefits, integrating green chemistry into curriculum and practice in higher education remains a challenge for education systems worldwide due to barriers including a lack of green chemistry content in textbooks, a lack of resources required to develop green chemistry education materials, an information gap among educators and other documented factors.1
MilliporeSigma, the U.S. and Canada Life Science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, a leading science and technology company, is expanding its partnership with global green chemistry education nonprofit Beyond Benign. With plans for a multi-year contribution to the organization, MilliporeSigma is helping transform chemistry education to better prepare next generation scientists with skills to address sustainability through chemistry. It is the largest funded partnership made under the company’s Employee & Community Engagement program.
"We share Beyond Benign’s passion and commitment to making green chemistry an integral part of chemistry education,” said Meeta Gulyani, Head of Strategy, Business Development and Sustainability for the Life Science business sector of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. “This partnership underscores our common goal to increase global access to science and science education while reducing environmental impact.”
Together, MilliporeSigma and Beyond Benign will provide expanded access to resources and support needed to apply greener practices in chemistry education.
This is key to reducing environmental and human health impact while simultaneously accelerating sustainable science. MilliporeSigma’s contribution will enhance capacity for Beyond Benign’s Green Chemistry Teaching and Learning Community (GCTLC) online platform and expand global access to resources and trainings for more than 4,000 faculty members worldwide.2 It also advances Beyond Benign’s goal of providing 25 percent of the 22,000 graduating chemists annually in the U.S.3 with green chemistry knowledge by 2025.
“In many countries, sustainability is not considered a core concept in undergraduate and graduate chemistry education,” said Dr. Amy Cannon, Co-founder and Executive Director, Beyond Benign. “MilliporeSigma’s support allows us to impact higher education systems worldwide, helping educators to upskill future generations to make more sustainable choices that improve human health and the environment through the reduction or elimination of hazardous substances.”
MilliporeSigma’s partnership with Beyond Benign also supports the goal of its parent company—Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany—to achieve human progress for more than one billion people through sustainable science and technology by 2030.
Chemistry educators interested in signing Beyond Benign’s Green Chemistry Commitment (GCC) program can do so by visiting Beyond Benign's GCC webpage, or by contacting Dr. Natalie O'Neil, Beyond Benign's Director of Higher Education, at Natalie_ONeil@beyondbenign.org for any questions.
References
1. Grieger, K.D.; Hill, B.; Leontyev, A. Exploring Curriculum Adoption of Green and Sustainable Chemistry in Undergraduate Organic Chemistry Courses: Results from a National Survey in the United States. Green Chem. 2022, 24, 8770–8782. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/D2GC02999E
2. The GCTLC online platform is being developed and launched in partnership with the American Chemical Society Green Chemistry Institute (ACS GCI).
3. Chemistry | Data USA. (n.d.). Datausa.io. Retrieved from: https://datausa.io/profile/cip/chemistry
