Sustainable Energy: fomenting awareness and creativity for innovative chemistry

The concept and applications of Green Chemistry are not a novelty in countries with a well-established chemical industry and universities. Since awareness about sustainability and environment is increasing exponentially, investment in education and in academic areas is viable not only to foment research and development inside the scientific community but also to provide an exchange of ideas potentially applicable to achieve the goals implicit in the Twelve Principles of Green Chemistry. Remarkably, the American Chemical Society has been committed to Sustainable Energy and Green Chemistry since 2003, with an initiative of holding a series of meetings as Summer Schools gathering graduate students and postdocs involved with R&D in the areas of environment, green chemistry and sustainability with sponsorship of various foundations resulting in no cost for the accepted applicants. The Summer School happens every year and offers in one week lectures, applied exercises and interactive activities, enabling networking between representatives of industries, researchers and the students themselves. Even though applications are only accepted from students of the Americas, students from nationalities of all around the world who study in the Americas have attended the ACS Summer School