FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | August 24, 2020

Call for nominations for EPA’s Green Chemistry Challenge Awards

WASHINGTON, Aug. 24, 2020 — The American Chemical Society (ACS), in partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), announces the call for nominations for the 2021 Green Chemistry Challenge Awards recognizing businesses, academic institutions and nonprofits for innovative green chemistry solutions and products.

“I’m proud to say that we’re once again looking for businesses and individuals to answer the call for nominations for the Green Chemistry Challenge Awards,” says Alexandra Dapolito Dunn, assistant administrator of EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention.

Green chemistry is the design of chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use and generation of hazardous substances. Nominations demonstrating innovations in green chemistry must be submitted to EPA by Dec. 4, 2020. (See below for details.)

These prestigious awards, established in 1996, recognize, encourage and speed the adoption of green chemistry. The distinguished award winners have developed products and processes that have had a significant impact on pollution prevention, including:

  • Eliminating 826 million pounds of hazardous chemicals and solvents each year — enough to fill almost 3,800 railroad tank cars or a train nearly 47 miles long.
  • Saving 21 billion gallons of water each year — the amount used by 820,000 people annually.

The ACS Green Chemistry Institute® (ACS GCI) will convene an independent panel of technical experts to formally judge the 2021 nominations and make recommendations to EPA for the 2021 winners.

“The American Chemical Society is delighted to continue its partnership with EPA to support the Green Chemistry Challenge Awards, the most-celebrated awards program recognizing green chemistry innovation,” says Mary Kirchhoff, Ph.D., director of ACS GCI and executive vice president for scientific advancement at ACS.

Register for an EPA webinar, which will provide guidance on submitting a nomination, on Sept. 23, 2020, and submit your application package. More information about green chemistry and the Green Chemistry Challenge Awards program can be found at www.epa.gov/greenchemistry.

The ACS Green Chemistry Institute® is an institute of the American Chemical Society dedicated to catalyzing the implementation of green and sustainable chemistry and engineering through the global chemistry 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 (ACS) is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS’ mission is to advance the broader chemistry enterprise and its practitioners for the benefit of Earth and its people. The Society is a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related information and research through its multiple research solutions, peer-reviewed journals, scientific conferences, eBooks and weekly news periodical Chemical & Engineering News. ACS journals are among the most cited, most trusted and most read within the scientific literature; however, ACS itself does not conduct chemical research. As a specialist in scientific information solutions (including SciFinder® and STN®), its CAS division powers global research, discovery and innovation. ACS’ main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

To automatically receive press releases from the American Chemical Society, contact newsroom@acs.org.

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