Sustainability in the Chemical Industry Grand Challenges and Research Needs (2006) / Chapter Skim
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5. Sustainability Science Literacy and Education That Enables the Adoption of More Sustainable Practices in the Chemical Industry
5. Sustainability Science Literacy and Education That Enables the Adoption of More Sustainable Practices in the Chemical Industry
Pages 67-79
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From page 67... ...
5 Sustainability Science Literacy and Education That Enables the Adoption of More Sustainable Practices in the Chemical Industry P rogress in all other areas discussed so far depends upon greater literacy in what is coming to be called sustainability science, which brings together "scholarship and practice, global and local perspectives from north and south, and disciplines across the natural and social sciences, engineering, and medicine."1 Given its ubiquitous influence over economies, effective transitional steps for the chemical industry to move toward sustainability are based fundamentally upon the initial stepping stone of communicating the dispersed science knowledge that makes sustainability thinking clear. While seemingly fragmented, the fields of green chemistry, industrial ecology, and earth systems science are interconnected constituents of this knowledge.
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68 SUSTAINABILITY IN THE CHEMICAL INDUSTRY mindset required for businesses to function effectively going forward on the other, is the first hurdle. The gap will be filled with state of the art knowledge about the nature-human interface, which in turn establishes the requisite mindset for innovation.
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From page 69... ...
in Environment Health and Safety (EH&S) offices or in debates about ethics and social responsibility.
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The first step in a research agenda for sustainability in the chemical industry should include how to effectively educate the people in industry to this reality. EDUCATIONAL PRIORITIES Enhancing the level of sustainability literacy generally and incorporating the concepts and strategies of sustainable practices in science and business education are key to attaining sustainability in the chemical enterprise.
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SUSTAINABILITY EDUCATION 71 Many people today distrust business. Yet younger people, idealistic and full of creative ideas, want to do meaningful work.
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EDUCATING FUTURE PRACTITIONERS- WORKFORCE AND EDUCATORS As the source of innovative ideas and technologies for the future chemical enterprise, future practitioners are a critical audience for educational programs that promote a more sustainable industrial system. Although the details of the changes in the curriculum will depend upon the target group, in general, changes in education should: address the interdisciplinary nature of the research problems introduced earlier in this report; develop the fundamental tools for solving complex problems; give students experience assessing the relative merits of different technological solutions; and help students appreciate the relevance of their work to industry and society as a whole.
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Green Engineering: Environmentally Conscious Design of Chemical Processes. Prentice Hall; Parent, K., and M
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5 Specialized Masters Degree programs that assist students in applying the basic science they have learned during their undergraduate education toward industrially-relevant problems may be an important approach to assist students in preparing to make contributions to the challenges faced in developing a more sustainable chemical enterprise. Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Students At the undergraduate level, effort should be made to introduce students to the concepts of sustainability within the context of the core curriculum.
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As petroleum based raw materials become scarce and costly, renewable (biobased) sources will likely become preferred based on their life cycle and more competitive as well as benign to the biosphere and human health.
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needs to be disseminated through teaching materials at both the MBA and executive levels to address deficiencies in current education and to inform working managers and executives of changing competitive conditions. Business education is key to the transformation of the chemical enterprise because most chemists and chemical engineers in firms are not business unit managers, nor are they typically on senior management teams.
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In each venue, an appropriate treatment should address the process of life cycle analysis, the influence of the inventory data on the analysis results, the interpretation of the results, and how results will be used. Awareness of the tools, frameworks (industrial ecology and green chemistry, for example)
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In each venue, an appropriate treatment should address the process of life cycle analysis, the influence of the inventory data on the analysis results, the interpretation of the results and how results will be used. LCA is also a powerful teaching tool in business education.
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SUSTAINABILITY EDUCATION 79 chemical enterprise. More senior educators also need exposure and education.
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