Green chemistry initiatives in Japan

In this issue, we feature an article in the news section from our colleagues in Japan who are leading the green chemistry initiatives there. The article describes the background in that country that led to the establishment of the Green and Sustainable Chemistry Network (GSCN). The article also highlights some of the activities of the GSCN, including their awards programme that has recently started. It is very pleasing to read about their excellent work after the discussions that we have had with them in the last few years about setting up the Network. The first international symposium on Green and Sustainable Chemistry will be held in Japan next year and we wish them every success. The symposium has attracted a number of distinguished speakers and will feature award-winning research and development, industrial case studies and an open session for the public. We look forward to reading more about the activities of the GSCN and about some of the papers at the symposium that we will feature in this journal. The open session for the public is, I believe, to be welcomed – green chemistry is an excellent opportunity for the chemistry community to demonstrate the ways that industry, scientists and educationalists are addressing fundamentally important issues of sustainability in the context of chemical processes and products.

In recent months I have heard a number of interesting presentations about areas of chemical technology that offer different ways of carrying out chemical processes than we are used to reading about in Green Chemistry and that are discussed in green chemistry symposia. One of these is electrochemical synthesis. These reactions can be considered to be ‘green’ especially when they provide methods for oxidising and reducing organic compounds without the use of often hazardous and ultimately polluting stoichiometric reagents. I hope that we can see more articles in Green Chemistry that describe electrochemical routes to important chemical products and intermediates. A more controversial technique is radiation processing. Can we consider chemical transformations and materials processing that involve radiation as ‘green’? I believe that there are some interesting possibilities in this context that we should consider and I would like to consider appropriate articles for publication in Green Chemistry as well as inviting comments on the inherent safety and sustainability of the methods. We are keen to widen the scope of the articles in Green Chemistry to include new and emerging areas of chemical processing as well as considering older areas that can contribute to achieving the principles of green chemistry.

November 2002

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