Submit Your Nomination for the 2024 Green Chemistry Challenge Awards by Dec. 8
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is accepting nominations through Dec. 8, 2023, for the 2024 Green Chemistry Challenge Awards which recognize companies and institutions that have developed a new green chemistry product or process that helps to protect human health and the environment.
Green chemistry is the design of chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the generation of pollution before it is created by minimizing or eliminating the hazards of chemical feedstocks, reagents, solvents and/or products. To expand the green chemistry focus, the 2024 challenge now includes a new category that emphasizes circularity through the design of greener chemicals and materials that can be continuously reused or remanufactured - thereby reducing waste from the onset. Circularity plays a key role in reducing plastic pollution since many plastics are now nearly impossible or costly to reuse or recycle and, therefore a large percentage are landfilled after just one use.
Previous winners include a company that developed a textile dying process that dramatically reduces the use of water, energy, dyes and chemicals compared to traditional dyeing methods, and a university professor who designed a way to refine agricultural waste into materials like lithium-ion batteries which are important for the transition to green energy.
An independent panel of technical experts convened by the American Chemical Society’s Green Chemistry Institute will formally judge the 2024 nominations and make recommendations to EPA. EPA anticipates giving awards to outstanding green chemistry technologies in six categories next fall.
A recording of a webinar to educate stakeholders on the Green Chemistry Challenge Awards and the nomination process is available on EPA’s website. It covers the history of the awards, the categories within the awards, eligibility requirements, and what is needed to submit a nomination.