Innovating for impact with green chemistry

“Green chemistry is emerging as one of the vital pathways to innovate responsibly and reduce the ecological footprint of chemical processes,” explained Rachel Martin, Senior Global Director of Sustainability at Elsevier.

Green chemistry sits at the intersection of innovation and sustainability. It drives industries and organizations to design safer, more sustainable products, materials and technologies by reimagining how chemicals are manufactured and applied.

Our latest webinar in the Sustainability in Action series — Green Chemistry for a Sustainable Future — explores how three industry leaders are approaching the green chemicals transition and driving sustainability.

This webinar is moderated by Rachel, featuring presentations from:

• Anna Zhenova, CEO of Green Rose Chemistry

• Sergio Mastroianni, Research & Innovation Program Manager at Syensqo

• Nicolas Sary, Senior Manager, Responsible Chemistry Ambition at Henkel

Syensqo: Disrupting the industry with biotechnology

Sergio laid out the importance of biotechnology, saying: “We strongly believe that using a combination of biology and green chemistry, we can widen the possibilities and move towards a more sustainable future,”

Syensqo is a global leader in sustainable chemistry, with a legacy of over 160 years, but their latest mission aims to disrupt the industry using biotechnology. The company has developed a set of ambitious sustainability goals, including:

• Carbon neutrality by 2040

• 20% reduction in freshwater withdrawal by 2030

• A more sustainable portfolio with 18% of circular sales by 2030

• Zero Recordable Incident Injury Rate (RIIR) and a living wage for all employees in 2026

Syensqo’s move toward carbon neutrality focuses on the entire carbon lifecycle, from origin to end-of-life. Every step of the journey comes with a solid strategy and actionable goals:

• Origin: Increase content of sustainable renewable carbon in product offering, from sources like biomass, captured CO2 and recycling.

• Production: Develop new growth businesses enabled by green chemistry and biotechnology to enrich portfolio.

• End-of-life: Develop biodegradable-by-design technology to manage the end-of-life of products.

Biodegradability is a key area for Syensqo, especially when it comes to polymers in liquid formulations — a sometimes overlooked area in the industry. Sergio continued,

“We are facing an unseen pollution problem when we consider the polymer in liquid formulations. In almost all formulations for home and personal care, agriculture, paint, we have polymers that, because they are soluble, we don’t see them. This is an enormous market and when they’re not biodegradable, we can’t recycle them so they accumulate somewhere unseen.”

To drive these different sustainability goals and strategies, Syensqo focuses on several different strategic levers, including internal and collaborative R&D programs, early stage investments, strategic partnerships and acquisitions.

Henkel: Driving transformation with responsible chemistry

From everyday household brands to industrial innovations, Henkel has built a legacy of over 150,000 high-performance products. Now, the company is driving sustainability and transformation with responsible, green chemistry. Nicolas said,

“We looked at the different green chemistry parameters, and in the beginning, you might think it’s a bit overwhelming. The challenge is how do you make sure that your company, your colleagues [...] know what to do. That’s why, at Henkel, we decided to make very simple actionable categories.”

Henkel divided its product portfolio into four distinct categories based on their environmental impact and contribution to sustainability:

• Pioneer: Products have an exceptionally positive impact on sustainability.

• Contributor: Products have a positive impact on sustainability.

• Performer: Products are meeting a basic standard.

• Transitioner: Products need to undergo improvements to meet sustainability goals.

With that in mind, Henkel applied a rules-based system of responsible chemistry, creating the foundation of their sustainability outlook. The “hazard-first system” or the “traffic light approach” became Henkel’s key to simplifying sustainability across a large organization:

• Red: Proven hazards present. Do not use or secure efficient risk management.

• Yellow: Suspected hazards present. Do not use in high impact development.

• Green: No relevant hazards found. Unrestricted use, but future research may result in an re-evaluation.

“We see the hazard as a spotlight … as a way to look at all the products where we cannot say, by default, that everything is good — that’s a product where you have to have a second look,” Nicolas continued.

The simple “traffic light approach” streamlines decision-making for employees across all areas of operation, helping the entire organization reduce:

• Risk for accidents, pollution and increase supply chain reliability

• Complexity of risk management to improve workplace

• Risk for incorrect use, provide products that are easy to use

• Chemical contamination of recycling streams

Green Rose Chemistry: Using AI to simplify polymer dissolution

Green Rose Chemistry, a small, independent sustainable chemistry consultancy, is on a mission to replace chemicals with safer or biobased alternatives. One of the projects driving this mission? Simplifying the polymer dissolution process. Anna explained,

“We really view polymer dissolution as an enabling technology that is critical for the green chemical transition.”

Anna explains that while polymers are both complicated and diverse, polymer dissolution is equally challenging. They’re hard to model, requiring time and complex technology. They’re also difficult to test due to lack of good experimental data and the fact that polymers need to be created before being tested.

With that in mind, Green Rose Chemistry set out to determine whether they can accurately predict polymer dissolution in a way that allows rapid screening of new polymers and solvents. Anna assembled a team, partnering with University of Cambridge, Innovate UK and the Innovation Centre in Digital Molecular Technologies to pioneer a new approach combining high-throughput robotics and AI. Anna continued,

“We landed on AI, but we’re taking a data-based approach where we’re taking really high-quality data that’s consistent internally to make sure that our algorithm is really accurate.”

The team measured over 25,900 datapoints covering 24 polymers to build an algorithm that predicts polymer solubility with 90-94% accuracy. Using these insights, the team is building a software, GoDissolve, designed to skip the need for experimental data and predict polymer solubility from structure alone.

“We’re hoping this will be really impactful and applied across industries as a platform technology that can help advance green chemistry. We wanted to enable development of new bio-based polymers and new biodegradable polymers, find new applications for polymers already in development and help develop new recycling methods,” said Anna.

Learn from industry leaders with Elsevier’s Sustainability in Action webinar series

Explore groundbreaking research, innovative solutions and practical strategies for advancing environmental sustainability through green chemistry. Watch the full Green Chemistry for a Sustainable Future webinar to:

• Learn how different organizations are innovating and transforming the chemicals industry.

• Get insight into real-world green chemistry examples and strategies from industry leaders.

• Find inspiration for driving sustainable change in your organization.

• Explore deeper follow-up questions during the Q&A session.

And stay tuned for future webinars in Elsevier’s Sustainability in Action series.

Related articles:

• Life Cycle Assessment Explained: Key to Sustainable and Circular Chemical Production

• Tackling global food challenges with AI: insights from an R&D leader

• Innovating differently: The role of R&D in a net-zero future

• Beyond waste: Unlocking circular innovation in materials and chemicals