The 12 Principles of Green Chemistry

At the heart of green chemistry lies a simple but powerful idea: build safety and sustainability into chemical design from the very beginning. These 12 principles serve as a framework for reducing risk, eliminating waste, and creating technologies that are both effective and environmentally responsible. Together, they guide how we think, invent, and innovate — for a healthier world.

The 12 Principles

1. Pollution Prevention
It is better to prevent waste than to treat and clean up waste after it is formed.

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 Synthesis
Whenever practicable, synthetic methodologies should be designed to use and generate substances that possess little or no toxicity to human health and the environment.

4. Design Safer Chemicals
Chemical products should be designed to preserve efficacy of the function while reducing toxicity.

5. Safer Solvents and Auxiliaries
The use of auxiliary substances (solvents, separations agents, etc.) should be made unnecessary whenever possible and, when used, innocuous.

6. Design for Energy Efficiency
Energy requirements should be recognized for their environmental and economic impacts and should be minimized. Synthetic methods should be conducted to ambient temperature and pressure.

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

8. Reduce Derivatives
Unnecessary derivatization (blocking group, protection/deprotection, temporary modification of physical/chemical processes) should be avoided whenever possible.

9. Catalysis
Catalytic reagents (as selective as possible) are superior to stoichiometric reagents.

10. Design for Degradation
Chemical products should be designed so that at the end of their function they do not persist in the environment and instead break down into innocuous degradation products.

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
Substance and the form of a substance used in a chemical process should be chosen so as to minimize the potential for chemical accidents, including releases, explosions and fires.