Green Chemistry August 1999 G99 Constitution and membership The Forum is constituted with an Executive Committee and an Activities Committee, both supported by a Secretariat based at the Institution of Civil Engineers. Membership of both committees is not limited to Engineers, but is by invitation only, with the minimum requirements of chartered status in their own field, and formal approval of the Executive.Stuart Luxon was the RSC-Environment, Health and Safety representative on the Forum until he resigned from the EHSC a few years ago. I was nominated as his successor (partly due to my background as Chief Chemist and Company Environmental Health Chemist with Rolls-Royce plc.), then was invited to join the Activities Committee the following year. When Darrol Stinton, a former testpilot, and now Engineering consultant in Aero and Marine, stepped down from the chairmanship due to overseas commitments in December 1998, I was offered and accepted the chair.Following the resignation of Professor Bennett, also due to overseas commitments, Stuart Mustow, a distinguished Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, accepted the Executive Chairmanship in January 1999.F OR U M The Hazards Forum Both committees have a balanced representation from engineering, science, technology, safety and emergency planning. Recent issues addressed by The Hazards Forum Seminars and meetings have included: l The Successful Management of Safety l Safety of Ships l Flood Hazards in Bangladesh l An Engineer’s Response and Tasks in Disaster Preparedness l Blowing the Whistle for Safety l Risks to the Public–The Rules, The Rulers and The Ruled l Gas-Rich Volcanic Lakes– A Major Natural Hazard Strategy for the Future The Forum was initially conceived to ensure that lessons of the past learned from major disasters both natural and man-made should not be forgotten.It has been recognized that with its multidisciplinary composition, the Forum is ideally suited to address the whole spectrum of issues of Hazard and Risk.In order to address this spectrum however, a much greater degree of cooperation will be sought with other Institutions and major companies in organizing attractive meetings that will offer a balanced perspective. The British National Committee for the UN International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR) is established under the auspices of the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering to co-ordinate British initiatives in support of the decade.It is interdisciplinary and reflects the involvement of many British nationals; consultancies and NGOs in natural disaster-related work worldwide. The decade ends in December 1999 and the Committee will be disbanded, but there is an opportunity for the Hazards Forum to provide an on-going focus for the work and in particular to incorporate consideration of risks arising from British natural hazards.The next seminar will be a half-day C G Terry Farthing describes an interdisciplinary forum for engineers concerned with the mitigation of both natural and man-made disasters Historical perspective The Hazards Forum, a registered Charity, was founded in 1989 by the Institutions of Chemical, Civil, Electrical and Mechanical Engineers to provide an interdisciplinary focus for: l the study of disasters and the promulgation of lessons drawn from them l the promotion of risk reduction strategies l raising awareness in the professional community of the responsibility of the individual to improve safety Disasters arising from both natural and man-made hazards were within the remit although it was British examples of the latter that were the primary drivers for the initiative by the Institutions.The first Mission Statement stated ‘The Hazards Forum exists to provide a focal point in which engineering features in the mitigation and reduction of both manmade and natural hazards and disasters’.Forum membership was initially restricted to the engineering institutions and associated bodies but in recent years membership has been extended beyond engineering. Other institutions and societies, including the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Geological Society, the Institute of Physics, Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Institute of Hydrology, are Associate Members.A range of companies, distinguished persons and others with an interest in hazards and risk are also included in the membership. The Forum, under the successive Executive chairmanship of Sir Frederick Warner, Sir Bernard Crossland and Professor Phillip Bennett, has pursued its aims and objectives via regular meetings, special keynote events and the publication of a Newsletter and books.The aim has been to provide a service to members and to bring important issues to a wider audience. ‘The Forum exists as a focal point for engineers involved in mitigating hazards and disasters’G100 Green Chemistry August 1999 one with the title, The Montreal Protocol–Twelve Years On. Chaired by Sir John Krebs, Chief Executive of the National Environmental Research Council, with speakers from The Meteorological Office, Rolls-Royce plc, ICI, Environmental Investigation Agency and the Health and Safety Executive (see details in box).Responsible Care Chemical Industries Association Re-launch Responsible Care Responsible Care is the Chemical Industries Association (CIA) commitment to continual improvement in health, safety and environmental performance and openness in communication about its activities.The CIA organised a meeting in May 1999 to both celebrate 10 years of commitment to Responsible Care and take a critical look at what is needed for the next 10 years. The highlight of the day was a speech by Michael Meacher—UK Minister of State for the Environment. Mr Meacher announced that a New Chemicals Strategy would be launched within the next few months.It is likely that this will contain measures to ensure that industry pursues a more sustainable approach in the production and use of chemicals. The strategy is also likely to emphasise the requirement for improved information on the environmental risk of all chemicals with the likely phase out of the most toxic and persistent chemicals.Mr Meacher did however make it clear that industry competitiveness will be maintained. Although somewhat critical of the current state of the Responsible Care programme, he did offer some praise for what had been achieved; it was clear however that he expected industry to become much more open and pro-active in obtaining SHE (safety, health & environmental) information and making this available to the public.Meacher also announced that his department had commissioned a full life cycle assessment and economic analysis of PVC and alternatives to it (such as wood for window frames). The work will be carried out by ENTEC and Ecobalance UK and will take a year to complete. The theme of improved openness F O R U M C G The Montreal Protocol... 12 years on Half-Day Seminar on October 13 1999, at the Institution of Civil Engineers, 1 Great George Street, London, UK In 1987, the developed nations signed an agreement in Montreal, Canada to limit production of, and ultimately ban the general production and use of Halons, chlorofluorocarbons [CFCs], carbon tetrachloride, and certain other solvents which had been shown to have a damaging effect upon the Global Ozone Layer.This agreement, to which some 130 nations are now committed, was termed the MONTREAL PROTOCOL. The Seminar has been arranged to hear the extent to which the Protocol has been successful in damage limitation in respect of the Ozone Layer, the lessons learnt by industry, the current availability of alternative substances and the problems experienced in identifying CFC smuggling from countries which are not signatories to the protocol. Chairman: SIR JOHN KREBS, currently Chief Executive of the National Environmental Research Council.Presenters: JOHN AUSTIN (The Meteorological Office), IAN LIDDLE (Rolls-Royce plc), MICHAEL WALKER (ICI), STEVE TRENT (The Environmental Investigation Agency), BERNARD ROBINSON (The Health and Safety Executive). Tickets (£56 for Members of the Hazards Forum and Affiliates; £70 for Non-Members) are available from The Hazards Forum Secretariat, 1 Great George Street, London SW1P 3AA Tel. 0171 665 2158, Fax 0171 233 1806, E-mail torey_d@ice.org.uk) on both product and process information recurred several times throughout the day. It was particularly encouraging to hear this message coming from Paula Gough (CIA Young Person of the Year) who was speaking on behalf of younger chemists and engineers in the industry.She believed that industry must accept, indeed encourage, greater transparency of data. At the same time industry should produce cost benefit analysis studies to show that being eco-friendly can also have a positive effect on the bottom line.There were also several speakers calling for industry to accept benchmarking, sharing of best practice and independent auditing in all areas of responsible care. These calls were particularly strong from the Environment Agency and the Health and Safety Executive. CIA members recognised these areas of concern and were selfcritical over the industry’s obsessive concern for confidentiality.With over 150 senior managers attending the event, we will hopefully see industry taking notice of these concerns. Responsible Care is now an undoubted success story but took a long time to gain acceptance since its launch in Canada in 1986. As a direct result of the programme CIA members have made significant improvements to both toxic release and energy efficiency through process development and uses of alternative materials.The histogram below shows the improvements made in release of red list substances (now only 20 tonnes per annum) and energy efficiency since the CIA’s launch 10 years ago. In re-launching the programme Dr Joe Blaker, CIA President, highlighted two important new statements that CEOs of member companies will be required to sign up to.l ‘We will work to conserve resources and reduce waste in all our activities’ l ‘In addition to ensuring our activitiesGreen Chemistry August 1999 G101 meet relevant statutory obligations, we will share experience with our industry colleagues and seek to learn from and incorporate best practice into our own activities’ Industry is taking steps to become greener and cleaner; the conference achieved an appropriate balance of self-congratulation, critical assessment and suggestions for improvement. This is indeed good news for green chemists in all walks of life.European Responsible Care questionnaire A questionnaire was sent to member companies of CEFIC (European Chemical Industry Council) which aimed to illustrate how Responsible Care is being implemented in Europe.Those responding to this questionnaire also had the opportunity to submit a case history which demonstrated some aspect of Responsible Care implementation. For example, Celanese has opened a 100000 tonnes/y butyraldehyde facility based on unique high-pressure rhodium technology, which enables improved use of raw materials and has lower production costs.The new process is more environmentally acceptable than the previous cobalt-based technology because it uses less energy and no waste water accumulates. Complete conversion of raw materials results in a considerable reduction in the number of side products generated. Other companies providing case studies include Borealis, BP Amoco, Henkel, Lyondell, and Shell Chemicals.Sweden implements OSPAR policy Sweden has become the first country to implement the policy set out at last year’s meeting of the OSPAR Commission1 at which North Atlantic nations agreed to eliminate emissions of hazardous chemicals that accumulate in biological systems or are environmentally persistent, as well as carcinogens and hormone disrupters. It had been thought that the Swedish policy would be even tougher after an Environment Ministry report recommended immediate prohibition. 1 The OSPAR Commission came into force on 25 March 1998, replacing the OSlo and PARis Conventions. For further information see http://www.ospar.org/eng/html/welcome.html F OR U M C G growing membership and requests for information. Our web site is now up and running (http://www.chemsoc.org/gcn); we will be continuously improving and updating this.Additional programming is required before the members’ area goes live but this should be available within a few weeks. Please send us any ideas or materials for inclusion. We recently held the first meeting of the Technical Advisory Panel; consisting of representatives of government departments, regulatory authorities, trade associations, research funding bodies and professional associations (see web site for full list of members).Topics discussed included the best ways of providing educational material for schools and universities and how best to involve industry in technology transfer and sharing of best practice. We are going to establish sub-panels on education and industry to work out the details of how to move forward—if anyone wishes to be involved please let us know.The official launch of the GCN will be held at the British Association Festival of Science Week on 16 September in Sheffield. We are still working out the full details of the event but if anyone would like to attend please let us know. Also in September (28th) we will be holding our first Green Chemistry seminar in York.The aim of the one-day seminar is to get young people discussing their work and to learn about the wider aspects of Green Chemistry outside their immediate research area; as such the majority of speakers will be postdocs from ‘local’ universities. We are fortunate in getting Ken Seddon from Belfast to give the Keynote lecture on ionic liquids, one of the fields that offer so much promise for future Green processes.Please let us know if you would like to attend. Still on the conference theme a note for your diaries; for April 2001, we are starting to plan the first RSC Green Chemistry conference to be held in Swansea. All aspects of Green Chemistry will be covered but we will be again be focussing on the work of younger chemists and engineers as well as highlighting what is happening in industry.Mike Lancaster, GCN Manager (greennet@york.ac.uk) 1999 Queen’s Awards The 1999 Queen’s Awards included 5 awards for technological achievement. Among those honoured were Zeneca Metal Extraction Products in Manchester for a novel magnesium-based process to manufacture a chemical for extracting copper from waste ore.There is a corresponding reduction in effluent from the process of some 85%. Synetix in Billingham won an award for the Hydecat process which is a fixed-bed catalytic process for the treatment of waste sodium hypochlorite liquor which is created whenever chlorine is produced or used. The hypochlorite is converted into oxygen and salt solution. Sustainable Technologies Initiative A new Sustainable Technologies Initiative (STI) has a total of £7.8m over 3 years available in funding to help businesses reduce their impact on the environment.The funding will support the development of technologies to help businesses produce less waste and pollution, use resources more efficiently and achieve greater social equity in their operations and products. Details of the initiative are still being finalised but it is likely that it will act as an umbrella for a range of activities focussed largely on R&D programmes and projects. The common theme of these will be the integration of sustainability into processes and products from the design stage. Sectoral and cross-sectoral topics will be addressed. It may be possible for some of the funding to be used to support small projects to investigate scope for creating a stimulated interest in sustainable technologies. Further information is available from the Department of Trade and Industry in London (tel. 0171 215 2988). Royal Society of Chemistry Green Chemistry Network The GCN has now been active for around 6 months. During this time we have published a number of general articles promoting the Green Chemistry movement; these have been met with a great deal of interest and resulted in invitations to give various presentations. This snowballing effect has resulted in