In the near future, the main strategy for sustainable development will be linked to the concept of "green chemistry". It is designed to help chemists improve the environment and ensure the safety of chemical processes and products, as well as reduce the risk of their negative impact on human health and the environment.
Green Chemistry is a scientific branch in chemistry, which includes any improvement in chemical processes that positively affects the environment. As a scientific direction, it arose in the 90s of the XX century. New schemes of chemical reactions and processes that are being developed in many laboratories around the world are designed to radically reduce the environmental impact of large-scale chemical production. Chemical risks that inevitably arise when using aggressive media are traditionally tried to be reduced by manufacturers in the manner of limiting the contact of workers with these substances. At the same time, Green Chemistry suggests a different strategy - a thoughtful selection of starting materials and process schemes, which generally excludes the use of harmful substances. Thus, Green Chemistry is a kind of art that allows not only to obtain the desired substance, but to obtain it in a way that, ideally, does not harm the environment at all stages of its productionConsistent use of the principles of Green Chemistry leads to lower production costs, if only because it does not require the introduction of stages of destruction and processing of harmful by-products, used solvents and other waste - because they simply do not form. Reducing the number of stages leads to energy savings, and this also has a positive effect on the environmental and economic evaluation of production.
Currently, Green Chemistry as a new scientific direction has a large number of supporters.
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