Knowledge After Progress

If green chemistry is not the answer…

Our group presented a few preliminary ideas from our literature and interview study with green chemists in the S₂C₂ Network. We argue that green chemistry is currently focused more on process optimisation than ‘green’ products – not least, because many chemists argue that green substances are practically impossible to design as complexities of future substance-organism-environment interactions are impossible to predict. While chemical simplification, i.e. reducing the number of substances in circulation and develop functional groups as a basis for risk assessment and regulation, is seen as a necessary response by some, we argue that three procedural shifts are necessary to move chemical manufacturing towards more sustainability and justice. First, Elsje Alessandra Quadrelli’s proposal of situating chemistries is necessary, i.e. acknowledge the priorities, values and interests built into the metrics, processes, and products of ‘greener’ chemicals; followed by advocating for widening the epistemic politics of these chemistries, i.e. codesign and participatory approaches to material designl; and last but not least: as a guiding principle for these reforms, materials sovereignty, i.e. giving communities a role in deciding what chemical realities they live with.