Green Chemistry - The 12 Principles

1. Prevention - It is better to prevent waste than to treat or clean up waste after it has been created

2. Atom Economy - Synthetic methods should be designed to maximize the incorporation of all materials used in the process into the final product

3. Less Hazardous Chemical Synthesis - Wherever practicable, synthetic methods should be designed to use and generate substances that possess little or no toxicity to human health and the environment

4. Designing Safer Chemicals - Chemical products should be designed to effect their desired function while minimizing their toxicity

5. Safer Solvents and Auxiliaries - The use of auxiliary substances (e.g. solvents etc.) should be made unnescessary wherever possible and innocous when used

6. Design for Energy Efficiency - Energy requirements of chemical processes should be recognized for their environmental and economic impacts and should be minimised

7. Use of Renewable Feedstocks - A raw material or feedstock should be renewable rather than depleting whenever technically and economically practicable

8. Reduce Derivatives - Unnescessary derivatisation (use of blocking groups, protection/deprotection, temporary modification of physical/chemical processes) should be minimised or avoided if possible, because such steps require additional reagents and can generate waste

9. Catalysis - Catalytic reagents are superior to stoichiometric reagents (see Scale Prevention SP)

10. Design for Degradation - Chemical products should be designed so that at the end of their function they break down into innocuous degredation products and do not persist in the environment (see ENVIRODOS^®)

11. Real-Time analysis for Pollution Prevention - Analytical methodologies need to be further developed to allow for real-time, in-process monitoring and control prior to the formation of hazardous substances

12. Inherently Safer Chemistry for Accident Prevention - Substances and the form of a substance used in a chemical process should be chosen to minimise the potential for chemical accidents, including releases, explosions and fires.