Sustainable Innovation through Green Chemistry: Engaging Graduate Students Outside of Disciplinary Silos

Green chemistry is a rapidly growing area of interest for industry as companies face increased regulatory requirements, supply constraints, and consumer demands for sustainable products. Business innovation is a powerful means to achieve sustainable development, but challenges associated with marketability of clean technologies must be considered for effective implementation.

On January 22-23, 2016, three McGill University units jointly hosted Sustainable Innovation through Green Chemistry, a workshop and case competition now in its fourth installment.  The Marcel Desautels Institute for Integrated Management (MDIIM), CREATE in Green Chemistry, and Trottier Institute for Sustainability in Engineering and Design (TISED) worked together to advance collaboration across the disciplines of management, chemistry, and engineering.

In a public lecture, leading expert Dr. Amy Cannon (Executive Director, Beyond Benign Foundation and recipient of the world’s first PhD in Green Chemistry from the University of Massachusetts in 2004) gave a talk on "Green Chemistry and Biomimicry: Towards More Sustainable Products through Inspiration from Nature and Innovation in the Laboratory". The combination of green chemistry and biomimicry provides a platform for innovative problem solving by deriving inspiration from the natural world (biomimicry) and creating products in a sustainable manner (green chemistry). This talk highlighted several examples of how disciplines can complement each other to address global problems by incorporating green chemistry. To view Dr. Amy Cannon’s keynote lecture, click here.

Following the public lecture, graduate-level participants from the Faculties of Science, Management, and Engineering, attended interdisciplinary seminars led by academic and industry representatives. Dr. Audrey Moores of McGill University Chemistry presented on “How to Evaluate Green Chemistry” and Dr. Philip Jessop of Queen’s University Chemistry lectured on “Designing Molecules for the Performance and the Environment”. Dr. Steve Maguire from McGill’s Desautels Faculty of Management provided insight on the “Business Logics for Environmental Investments”. Two presenters from industry, Roger Zampini and Rubens Verni of Quadra Chemicals Ltd, spoke to students about the business implications and market opportunities associated with cleaner products.

The following day, graduate students from management, chemistry, and engineering, participated in a full-day case competition. The teams, composed of students from McGill and Queen’s, worked together in five interdisciplinary teams. This mixed team composition allowed students to practice working alongside teammates with different knowledge backgrounds and skillsets while building their network of potential future collaborators. 

This year's case featured sustainability opportunities and challenges related to polylactide (PLA). Background materials relating to PLA, life-cycle analysis, and case specific company information were distributed to students to review in advance. On the morning of the case crack, students were asked to address the following challenge:

Imagine you work for Green Chemistry Business Consulting, a consulting company specializing in the provision of integrated technical and business advice. You have been hired by the executive team of a large chemical manufacturer to contribute to their strategic planning in the form of a 15-minute PowerPoint presentation at their next meeting. They have provided a list of topics to be covered and questions to be addressed in the presentation.

After researching, preparing materials, and conducting practice runs, each student team presented in front of a judging panel. Presentations were evaluated on the basis of integration of technical and business information, demonstrated mastery of concepts, strength of presentation, and overall quality of the teams’ responses and recommendations.

At the end of the competition, students assembled with others from their specific Faculty in order to discuss the challenges associated with interdisciplinary communications, network building, and other lessons learned. A key takeaway for students was the importance of building a strong business case when introducing more sustainable products or creating substitutions to phase out riskier alternatives. The importance of sound technical content and ideas was also underlined. The event highlighted the continued interest and need for cross-Faculty collaboration and opportunities for students from different faculties to work together in supportive learning environments.