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Transitioning the Chemical Industry: Towards Sustainable Chemicals and Materials

While the chemical industry and its products have played a critical role in driving sustainable development and a high quality of life for people, they are also an important contributor to the climate change, toxic pollution, and plastic waste problems that threaten human and planetary health. This existential crisis undermines the industry’s contributions and creates a challenge that constrains the chemical enterprise’s ability to attract diverse new talent, investment, and trust. In 2022, the UMass Lowell Sustainable Chemistry Catalyst outlined five key conversion strategies and elements of a roadmap to transition the chemical industry towards sustainability. In February 2023, the European Commission published its Transition Pathway for the Chemical Industry aimed at guiding the industry in meeting the challenges of climate change, circularity, safety, and digitization. A parallel roadmap for the industry is embodied in the Louisville Charter for Safer Chemicals. This webinar will present various perspectives on transitioning the chemical industry and the types of research, collaborations, investment, and policy that will be needed for the industry to reinvent itself over the next 10-30 years.

Mar 28, 2023 11:00 AM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)