The OPCW Technical Secretariat (hereinafter “the Secretariat”) wishes to inform Member States that the Secretariat will hold a “Workshop on Green and Sustainable Chemistry: Fostering Chemical Safety and Security through Innovation” at OPCW Headquarters in The Hague, the Netherlands on 4 and 5 December 2018. The workshop is being organised as part of the programme of work under Article XI of the Chemical Weapons Convention (hereinafter “the Convention”).
Green and sustainable chemistry offers scientific and technological solutions for product and process design, whereby alternative chemical products and processes can be used to replace some unsustainable practices in the production and use of chemicals. Green chemistry is aimed at reducing the negative impact that chemicals, because of their toxic and other hazardous properties, can have on human health and the environment, at reducing process-related hazards and vulnerability, and at improving resource and economic efficiency. Green chemistry not only offers alternatives to existing unsustainable practices but also provides scientists and engineers, through its principles, with an innovative way of thinking when designing new products and processes. This is known as the “benign-by-design” approach, referring both to chemical reactions (processes or pathways) and formulations of chemical products.