Charting the Course to Sustainable Chemistry in the Supply Chain (Invited Presenters Only)

Session Organizers: Jennifer Y. Tanir, Founder, Toward Safer LLC; M. Barclay Satterfield, Eastman Innovation Center Leader, Eastman Chemical Company

One of the barriers to the implementation of sustainable chemistry is strong integration and acceptance throughout the supply chain. Despite many individual single-product or single-company successes, or a few advances in limited sectors’ supply chains, there is still a need for widespread agreement on sustainability goals and cooperation throughout supply chains. This 1-day workshop will focus on formulated household products and attempt to distill the learnings from individual successes into a plan for widespread adoption. The workshop will build on related conversations at the 2017 GC&E Conference and a Green Chemistry article by the ACS GCI Formulators’ Roundtable. The discussions will bring together the technical experts in formulated household products along with learnings from other sectors that can be applied, new ways of thinking, and students who can develop future solutions. The format will be interactive including invited talks as well as brainstorming and problem-solving sessions with the goal of developing a plan (and publication) to better incorporate sustainable chemistry in the supply chain. The workshop will explore: (1) How to drive change, with lessons from past successes; (2) Goals, barriers to achieving those goals, and consensus on what success looks like; (3) Developing a plan forward, including recommendations. The workshop is being organized in partnership with the ACS Committee on Environmental Improvement (CEI).