Not sure what "systems thinking" is and what it has to do with green chemistry? Watch this video to learn about systems thinking and how it relates to green chemistry.

Read about Systems Thinking in the special issue of the Journal of Chemical Education, "Reimagining Chemistry Education: Systems Thinking, and Green and Sustainable Chemistry": https://pubs.acs.org/toc/jceda8/96/12#

Learn more about Systems Thinking and Green Chemistry: https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/greenchemistry/students-educators.html

Learn how to promote chemistry education at your school: https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education.html


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Transcript:
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Not sure what systems thinking is and what it has to do with green chemistry?

Systems thinking asks you to look around and beyond the thing you’re trying to make. To use a wider lens.

Imagine you’re making dinner for someone. You can focus on the end result, and ignore everything else that went into making the dinner a reality. Or, you can use a Systems Thinking approach to create a nourishing meal while respecting the health and safety of people and the environment.

What do you need to make the meal? Are the ingredients locally-sourced and sustainably produced? Did you create a lot of waste? Did you use a lot of energy? Was it a safe process? Is anything being recycled or reused, or can you make something else with it?

Yes, healthy and safe food is important - but how the food is made, harvested, shipped, stored, what’s done with the excess– and what it leaves behind are all important too. And it’s the same process back in the lab.

Green chemists focus on thoughtful design at every stage, and consider all the inputs and outputs to the system. Green chemistry concepts and practices give you, the chemist, the tools and knowledge to take a systems thinking approach to the design of chemicals, pathways, and processes. The result? More sustainable outcomes.

Let’s say you’re working on a chemical that can be used to protect a crop… say it’s an herbicide and you have one that works pretty well. You’re done, right? Nope. A systems thinking and green chemistry approach starts BEFORE you begin your process.

For example have you thought about: where your inputs are sourced? No, I mean where are they from? Are they from sustainable sources? How efficient is your process?

Have you avoided the formation of harmful byproducts? If not, have you identified and quantified them?

Have you thought about managing exposure? What happens when you apply it? Is anything else affected? And, does the material degrade? Does it persist or bioaccumulate?

Once it’s done its job, what happens to it? Can it be recycled or reclaimed?

Hmmm…Let’s start over using green chemistry principles and practices and using a systems thinking lens.

How’s the design? Beautiful! By-products or waste? Awesome! Efficiency? Energy? Nice!

How about managing exposure and thinking about how material will degrade? Wow! Impressive.

Systems thinking gives you a lot more to think about, and by using green chemistry, the science is much more thoughtful and elegant in design. Great Job!