Green Chemistry Case Studies in the Undergraduate Curriculum

The Green Chemistry for Climate and Sustainability certificate program at Yale University addresses an urgent need at the intersection of chemistry, climate mitigation, and sustainability. This fully online program prepares professionals to lead the current chemicals sector into one that simultaneously maximizes product function while addressing climate change and sustainability concerns. Using novel online curriculum, participants examine the role of green and sustainable chemistry in meeting core humanitarian and environmental demands with attention to the global and local challenges posed by climate change and chemicals of concern. The program equips participants with practical tools to develop and prioritize greener strategies and to understand the economic, policy, and regulatory drivers necessary to scale green and sustainable practices within the timeframe necessary to benefit humanity. This presentation highlights a case study using the real-world example of the fashion industry to demonstrate applied learning outcomes. Using the Stockholm Declaration on Chemistry for the Future as a guiding framework, participants provide solutions for a just and sustainable fashion system across its full life cycle. These include the technological innovations, labor and environmental protections, policy and regulatory tools needed to demonstrate the potential of green and sustainable chemistry practices to reduce waste and hazard while improving social and environmental outcomes.

Soybeans have a 3,000-year history as a food source for both humans and livestock. However, since the early 1930s, and particularly during World War II, soybean oil and meal have found new utility as renewable feedstocks for a wide range of industrial applications often replacing fossil fuels. Soy innovations include use in lubricants, paints and coatings, plastics, adhesives and cleaning solutions. These technological success stories are the foundation for a series of case studies that teach chemistry concepts in the context of new sustainable solutions modeling green chemistry principles and meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Each case study identifies relevant molecular structures, properties, and reactions that meet classroom learning outcomes while exploring the application described. Soybean oil, with its rich triglyceride functionality, addresses the chemistry of esters, alcohols, and double bonds and is the subject of case studies involving safer and more resilient electrical transformers, recycled asphalt for a greener road ahead, and hydrogenated oils for candle wax. Soy flour introduces biochemistry structures from amino acids to protein structure hierarchy and has successfully been used as biobased adhesives for wood. The developed case studies are amendable for incorporation into general chemistry, organic chemistry, biochemistry, material science, and environmental courses, depending on the topic, but all engage students with exciting advances in commercial uses of soy as a renewable feedstock with low toxicity and potential for biodegradability. Soy (is) good for human health and the environment.

This work examines curricula exploring soy-based chemicals and materials as a case study to examine how different quantitative assessment frameworks inform both chemical design and chemistry education. While formative and summative assessments frame student learning, researchers and practitioners rely on life-cycle assessments (LCAs), techno-economic assessments (TEAs), and chemical hazard assessments to evaluate the environmental, economic, and safety implications of chemical technologies. As bio-based alternatives gain traction, it is increasingly important for students to understand the strengths, limitations, and appropriate applications of these methods. We compare LCAs, TEAs, and hazard assessments applied to soy-derived processes and materials, emphasizing the distinct input data and outputs each generates and how these shape conclusions about sustainability and feasibility. Using open-access databases and classroom-ready tools, students quantitatively evaluate soy-based systems alongside conventional petroleum-derived counterparts. Integrating these assessment approaches, including coupled LCA–TEA, supports systems thinking and enables more holistic evaluation of chemical transformations. Developing fluency across assessment types equips students to assess sustainability claims critically and to generate their own evidence-based evaluations of bio-based chemical technologies.

Incorporating green chemistry and systems thinking into undergraduate education requires teaching approaches that connect chemical knowledge with societal, environmental, and economic dimensions. This contribution presents a scalable educational strategy implemented at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile between 2024 and 2025, first piloted in an innovation and entrepreneurship course for non-science majors and later adapted to a Green Chemistry and Green Engineering course for chemistry and pharmacy students.
In the initial experience, students worked with Sustainable Development Goals frameworks, stakeholder mapping, and problem-definition tools to understand how scientific and technological decisions interact within complex systems. This stage served as proof of concept, showing that systems thinking can strengthen students’ ability to identify value creation opportunities, anticipate unintended consequences, and envision more sustainable solutions.
Based on these results, the model was implemented in a discipline-specific setting where students combined Green Chemistry Principles with life-cycle perspective, safer design, and innovation management. Using scaffolded and introductory adaptations of systems thinking resources developed within the ACS Green Chemistry Institute community, learners created guided visual maps to explore system boundaries, stakeholders, material flows, and trade-offs. Moreover, case-based activities linked molecular and process decisions with regulatory contexts and market forces, supporting analysis of environmental impacts, economic implications, and societal responsibilities associated with chemical products and technologies. This broader view helped students better understand how chemists contribute to sustainable development beyond the laboratory.
Furthermore, assessment across courses shows higher engagement, more productive interdisciplinary conversations, and an improved capacity to frame chemical problems in real-world contexts.
Finally, the approach offers a transferable pathway for programs aiming to introduce sustainability and systems thinking across the curriculum while preserving strong disciplinary foundations.

The diverging trajectories of chemical engineering education and practice reveal gaps between the “second paradigm” (emphasizing transport phenomena) in the classroom and the “fourth paradigm” (aimed towards sustainability and environmental justice). Fostering further understanding of the green chemistry principles (GCPs) and their relevance to chemical engineering design challenges can address the discrepancy between existing curricula and real-world needs. To this end, we began with a “small teaching” approach by creating a two-lesson mini-module on the GCPs for the Fall 2023 and Spring 2024 sections of UIUC’s senior-level undergraduate process design course. We had students examine each GCP through an engineering lens and identify their utility for product, reaction, and process design, laying out a rigorous framework to appraise existing and proposed processes on GCP-based criteria. We offered pairs of quiz topics (fine vs. commodity chemicals), improving inclusivity using interest-based choices. Aggregating each pair of quizzes, students earned averages of 7.8/10.0 points (78.0%) in Fall 2023 and 19.5/25.0 points (78.0%) in Spring 2024 (no significant differences within each term). Student feedback (nearly 100% response rates) indicated positive reception and self-reported achievement of learning outcomes, corroborated by their high quiz performance. We then piloted a six-lecture module in Spring 2025 to bridge the “third paradigm” of product engineering, expanding on each topic explored in the “small teaching” module: historical foundations of green chemistry, chemical hazards, (non)renewable feedstocks, green chemistry and environmental metrics, safer synthesis, and accident prevention. We developed a “scaffolded” exercise over several homeworks to guide students through evaluations of four candidate product molecules based on the five technical lectures. High baseline performance on a modified ASK-GCP inventory and qualitative feedback suggest opportunities for deeper integration with prerequisite coursework. This work, however, offers two strategies to begin redesigning chemical engineering curricula to equip students to tackle problems in sustainable chemical manufacturing.

At Butler University, the majority of our organic chemistry students are pursuing careers in the health sciences (pharmacists, physician assistants, opthomologists, etc.). Many of them ask “Why do I need to study organic chemistry? I’ll never use it in my career”. These case studies were designed to help pre-health students bridge organic chemistry concepts with clinical application.
After each organic chemistry concept is discussed, a case study showing the relevance of the learnings to medicine and health sciences in presented. Each case study includes reflection questions with a focus on green chemistry for the students to discuss and answer in groups during class or online after class using Hypothesis, a collaborative social annotation tool.
Four case studies will be presented:
1. Silent but deadly: A case study discussing carbon monoxide poisoning and how valence bond theory helps physicians understand bonding and toxicity.
2. Tylenol overdose: A case study discussing the oxidation of Tylenol to NAPQI and how resonance can predict electrophilic and nucleophilic sites.
3. The clopidogrel pro-drug story: How an understanding of reactive intermediates and mechanisms can help physicans understand pro-drug actions
4. The frozen one: how an understanding of elimination reactions can help health professionals understand how Parkinson’s-like symptons could be caused by a street drug.

A green, research-like laboratory module was developed for a General Chemistry II course to introduce metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) through sustainable practices. Students synthesized HKUST-1 using water as the sole solvent at room temperature and atmospheric pressure, achieving yields above 90% while avoiding hazardous solvents and energy-intensive conditions. The module integrates core green chemistry principles, materials characterization, and environmental relevance through pollutant adsorption studies. Student motivation and perceived value were assessed, revealing moderate to high levels of intrinsic motivation and usefulness, particularly among early-stage undergraduates. Student reflections further indicated increased awareness of green chemistry, enhanced problem-solving skills, and improved preparation for STEM careers. Overall, this work demonstrates an effective approach for embedding sustainability and authentic research experiences into introductory chemistry laboratory curricula.

Current ACS Guidelines for Undergraduate Chemistry Programs encourage instructors to introduce their students to green chemistry using real-world case studies. Case study-based pedagogies have a rich history in professional fields such as law, business, and medicine, and there is growing interest to include case studies in science classrooms, particularly as a way to highlight chemical connections to industry. However, many practical challenges exist for chemistry educators who wish to adopt case studies. To help overcome these barriers, we’ve developed a flexible template and guide for quickly and easily creating green chemistry case studies tailored to an individual instructor’s classroom and needs. The template is inspired by case study educational traditions and previous iterations of successful green chemistry case studies. The template provides a scaffold with suggested components upon which to build a case study, and it is accompanied by a user’s guide that provides context and assists the instructor in rapidly collecting and organizing their thoughts. Together, these tools aid an instructor in selecting a suitable topic, defining relevant learning objectives, and building appropriate class materials, all of which can be easily packaged and shared with colleagues across the green chemistry education community and beyond. In addition to describing the development and creation of the template, examples of case studies built from it will be presented.

This short, one-hour interactive session is designed to illustrate the value of incorporating case studies into curricular materials for teaching chemists at all career stages about fundamental concepts in green and sustainable chemistry. The facilitators will introduce the new ACS GCI Fundamentals of Green Chemistry online course resource and walk attendees through several case studies embedded in course modules. Participants will see examples of case studies in practice and get an exclusive preview of ACS GCI’s new open-access course, which will be formally launched at the ACS Fall National Meeting in Chicago in August 2026.