From: John NailDate: August 30, 2009 8:55:49 AM EDT (CA) Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Environmental sustainability in labs?- Friday Hilarity Ensues Any use of energy, water or chemicals will have an environmental impact. Despite popular wishful thinking, all energy sources, including solar, wind and hydro, have adverse environmental impacts. If '(environmentally) sustainable' means 'minimizing ecological impact (while maintaining safety standards)', then this is logically / physically possible. I should note as someone who teaches undergrads that often 'green' chemistry lab experiments are needlessly confusing for the students. As an example, students get that if Cr+6 is being reduced to Cr+3, the organic reactant is being oxidized; they don't get many of the 'green' oxidization reactions. Presumably, we all remember the 'degrees of freedom' concept from P.Chem. We have to balance safety, good teaching, environmental impact and costs. If we maximize any one of these, it forces a compromise in the others. JN
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