EPA Calls for Nominations for 2020 Green Chemistry Challenge Awards
WASHINGTON (September 18, 2019) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is now accepting nominations for the 2020 Green Chemistry Challenge Awards for companies or institutions that have developed a new process or product that helps protect public health and the environment.
“The Green Chemistry Challenge is an opportunity for EPA to recognize the latest and greatest in green chemistry innovations in chemical design, manufacture, and use,” said EPA Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention Assistant Administrator Alexandra Dapolito Dunn. “Innovations in green chemistry are an important component of pollution prevention efforts and keeping American businesses competitive in markets around the world. These innovations can turn waste materials into marketable commodities, reduce costs through material efficiency, and open new markets for products and services.”
Green chemistry is the design of chemical products and processes that reduce both the generation and use of chemicals that are hazardous to the environment and people’s health. Nominations for innovative technologies featuring the design of greener chemicals and products, greener chemical syntheses and reactions, or greener chemical processes are due to the agency by December 31, 2019. EPA anticipates giving awards to outstanding green chemistry technologies in five categories next June.
Since the inception of the awards more than two decades ago, EPA has received more than 1600 nominations and presented awards to 118 technologies, which reduced the use or generation of hundreds of millions of pounds of hazardous chemicals and saved billions of gallons of water and trillions of BTUs in energy.
An independent panel of technical experts convened by the American Chemical Society Green Chemistry Institute will formally judge the 2020 nominations and make recommendations to EPA for the 2020 winners.
More information on past award winners and how to submit entries can be found at: www.epa.gov/greenchemistry.