Nominations sought for the 23rd Annual Green Chemistry Challenge Awards

WASHINGTON, May 1, 2018 — The American Chemical Society’s Green Chemistry Institute^® (ACS GCI) announces the call for nominations for the 2018 Green Chemistry Challenge Awards for companies or institutions that have developed a new process or product that helps protect public health and the environment. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) supports the continuation of the awards in 2018 under the sponsorship of the ACS GCI.

“The Green Chemistry Challenge Award is the nation’s most prestigious award program for green chemistry innovations,” says Mary Kirchhoff, Ph.D., director of the ACS GCI and executive vice president of Scientific Advancement at ACS. “We are pleased to continue supporting this program by hosting the award this year.”

Nominations for innovations in six categories are due by July 2, 2018. The categories are academic, small business, greener synthetic pathways, greener reaction conditions, designing greener chemicals and climate change. As in past years, an independent scientific panel convened by the ACS GCI will make recommendations for winners. The ACS GCI Advisory Board will make the final selections. Notification of winners will take place by Aug. 31, 2018, and the awardees will be honored at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., in October 2018.

During the 22 years the EPA has run this award program, they have received more than 1,700 nominations and have presented 109 awards. This program reportedly has helped cut hazardous solvents and chemicals by more than 826 million pounds, saved 21 billion gallons of water and eliminated 7.8 billion pounds of carbon dioxide releases to air.

More information about the award and the nomination packet are on https://www.acs.org/gcca.

The ACS Green Chemistry Institute^® is an institute of the American Chemical Society dedicated to catalyzing the implementation of sustainable green chemistry and engineering throughout the global chemical enterprise and the Society. ACS GCI convenes industrial roundtables, holds an annual Green Chemistry & Engineering conference (gcande.org), and offers educational resources including grants, awards, webinars and workshops—encouraging scientific innovations to solve environmental and human health issues facing our world today.

The American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society, is a not-for-profit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS is a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related information and research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. ACS does not conduct research, but publishes and publicizes peer-reviewed scientific studies. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.