Dr. Lauren Heine, Director of Applied Science for the
GreenBlue Institute, gave a presentation entitled Green Chemistry and Cradle to Cradle Product Design on Tuesday,
February 6, 2007 as part of SUNY-ESF's Women in Scientific and Environmental
Professions Spring Seminar Series. The Faculties of Chemistry and Paper and
Bioprocess Engineering and the ESF Women's Caucus jointly sponsored the event.
Dr. Heine's lecture focused on material health and green
chemistry's contribution to it. Material health refers to products that are
safe to both humans and the environment during their full life cycle, with a
focus on design for safe, productive return to nature or industry. Material
health is important because materials can directly and indirectly affect the
health of entire ecosystems, as well as humans. After defining material health
and its importance, Dr. Heine cited examples of both direct and indirect impacts
of bad product design. Dr. Heine then turned her attention to strategies.
The four strategies for material health described by Dr.
Heine were Know Your Product (Inventory), Know the Potential Impacts (Impact
Assessment), Choose Green Chemical
Products and Processes, and Remember
the Big Picture. “Knowing your product” means identifying all components
and ingredients of the product, ideally down to 100 ppm. This strategy includes
requiring full ingredient disclosures and creating lists of suppliers who are
either preferred (P-list) or should be avoided (X-list) based on their product
components.
“Knowing the Potential Impacts” means preventing harmful
consequences by understanding the toxicity, hazard, and risks associated with
your materials over their full life cycle. Toxicity refers to the adverse
effects of exposure to various agents to living organisms and ecosystems. When
assessing toxicity, it is important to keep the dose and the timing of the exposure in mind. Hazards include such things
as extreme toxicity to humans and ecosystems, bioaccumulation, and more. Risk
equals hazard multiplied by exposure.
“Choosing Green
Chemical Products and Processes” includes selecting safer and healthier
alternatives; designing healthy alternatives in collaboration with suppliers;
and looking for emerging green chemistries and technologies. Green chemistry is
the design of chemical processes and products to reduce and/or eliminate
hazardous substances. Dr. Heine outlined twelve principles of green chemistry and
provided examples of products and companies using green chemistry.
Dr. Lauren Heine received her doctorate in Civil and
Environmental Engineering from Duke
University. She is
currently the Director of Applied Science at the non-profit institute GreenBlue.
Dr. Heine is also directing the development of CleanGredientsTM and
the Sustainable Textile Metrics standard. In addition, she consults and
publishes on issues relating to green chemistry, alternatives assessment and
sustainable material flows.
The next lecture in this series, Global warming: the science
behind the headlines, is scheduled for Tuesday, March 6, and will feature
Dr. Brenda Ekwurzel, Climate Scientist, Global Environment Program, Union of
Concerned Scientists, Washington, DC.
This visit will also be part of Syracuse University’s
Women in Science and Engineering Speaker Series. For more information, please visit http://www.esf.edu/womenscaucus.
