The 2025 International Chemical Congress of Pacific Basin Societies will be held from December 15th to 20th in Honolulu, Hawaii. This year’s event will center around the theme, “Building Communities to Address Global Challenges.” If you are attending, be sure to catch these presentations from members of the Beyond Benign team and community! 👋⤵️
A New Tool for Creating Custom Case Studies That Illustrate Green Chemistry, Sustainability, and Systems Thinking
Presented by Dr. Jennifer Tripp, Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of San Francisco.
Case studies are a useful classroom tool for teaching students about a chemistry topic while further encouraging them to explore the mutual connections, for good and bad, between chemistry and broader human, environmental, and economic systems. Beyond Benign and the American Chemical Society Green Chemistry Institute recently developed a versatile template that will guide instructors as they build their own effective case studies for classroom use. This presentation will introduce the Case Study Template tool and provide examples of how it can be used to create classroom learning materials that effectively illustrate a systems thinking approach to chemistry.
🗓️ December 18th at 10:55 a.m. HST
The Journey Towards an Inclusive Global Green Chemistry Education Community of Practice by Prioritizing Diversity, Equity, Belonging, and Respect for an Open-Access Online Platform
Presented by Dr. Amy Cannon, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Beyond Benign
A worldview that prioritizes diversity, equity, belonging, and respect (DEBR) is central to creating a green chemistry education community of practice: a community of shared values where, if members feel a strong sense of belonging, they will be empowered and enabled to collectively transform chemistry education worldwide. This presentation will describe the framework used for integrating DEBR principles and practices throughout the design, development, and launch of the Green Chemistry Teaching and Learning Community (GCTLC) platform, an open-access community platform that supports the green chemistry education community of practice.
🗓️ December 18th at 1:40 p.m. HST
Empowering the Green Chemistry Community Towards a Systemic Change: The Green Chemistry Commitment at Beyond Benign
Presented by Dr. Juliana Vidal, Senior Program Manager at Beyond Benign
The Green Chemistry Commitment (GCC), one of Beyond Benign’s key initiatives, promotes the integration of green chemistry into science courses at universities, colleges, and institutes around the globe. Since 2013, 250 institutions from 35 countries (and counting!) have signed the GCC and committed to integrating green chemistry into their curricula, building upon unique and diverse campus environments, strengths, cultures, and resources. In this poster presentation, Juliana will discuss the GCC program and its impact on fostering a community that creates systemic change in our society, as well as the benefits of integrating green chemistry principles and practices in chemistry education.
🗓️ December 19th at 10 a.m. HST
Green Chemistry Communities: Principles, Practices, and Action Towards a Sustainable Future
Organized by Beyond Benign team members Dr. Juliana Vidal, Dr. Amy Cannon, and Dr. John Warner, alongside Green Chemistry Commitment signers Dr. John De Backere (University of Toronto), Dr. Kei Saito (Kyoto University), and Dr. Supawan Tantayanon (Chulalongkorn University).
Green chemistry has a fundamental role in achieving a sustainable future. Chemists with green chemistry skills can design processes and products that will not impact human health or the environment. To achieve this goal, however, we need everyone on board. This session will highlight holistic, interdisciplinary, and comprehensive approaches to achieving a sustainable future through green chemistry. Participants will have the opportunity to engage in conversations with the speakers about local and global actions that can be taken to build communities of transformation.
🗓️ December 19th at 1 p.m. HST & December 20th at 8 a.m. HST
Towards Systemic Change in Chemistry Education: Empowering a Global Green Chemistry Education Community
Presented by Dr. Amy Cannon, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Beyond Benign
Beyond Benign envisions a future where the molecular building blocks of products used every day are healthy and safe for humans and the environment. Green chemistry concepts, along with additional sustainability and systems thinking approaches, are essential in preparing global scientists and citizens with the skills to address sustainability challenges. This presentation will share Beyond Benign’s approach for building and empowering a green chemistry community to transform chemistry education, including building key programs and partnerships towards realizing systemic change in chemistry education.
🗓️ December 19th at 1:05 p.m. HST
People Working with People — Green Chemistry Innovations
Presented by Dr. John Warner, Co-Founder of Beyond Benign; CTO and CEO of The Technology Greenhouse
The global green chemistry community is large and growing. Many traditional national chemistry societies struggle to remain up to date and relevant. The green chemistry community is thriving by forming more future-focused informal assemblies of people that enable them to adapt to an evolving and changing world. This presentation will discuss several of these unique collaborations that have enabled innovations in industry and academia.
🗓️ Time to be announced
