Simple and Effective Integration of Green Chemistry and Sustainability Education into an Existing Organic Chemistry Course

Green chemistry and sustainable development have become increasingly important topics for the education of future chemists. The cross-disciplinary nature of green chemistry and sustainable development often means these subjects are taught in conjunction with other subjects, such as organic chemistry and chemical engineering. Herein, a straightforward and efficient approach for vertical integration of green chemistry concepts within existing undergraduate organic chemistry courses is shown. The gradual self-evaluation, greenification, and reassessment of an organic chemistry course at KTH Royal Institute of Technology from 2013 to 2017 is described, with particular focus on the laboratory course and a novel green chemistry project designed to promote sustainability thinking and reasoning. The laboratory project, which can also be conducted as an independent organic chemistry laboratory exercise, required students to critically evaluate variations of the same Pechmann condensation experiment according to the twelve principles of green chemistry. The course evaluation shows that, after the modifications, students feel more comfortable with the topics green chemistry and sustainability and consider these topics more important for their future careers. Furthermore, the ability of students to discuss and critically evaluate green chemistry parameters improved considerably as determined from the laboratory project reports.