Understanding Innovation for Sustainable Development: A Comparison study of Green Chemistry in the United States, India and China

Dr. Kira Matus

The chemical sector has a long history of innovation, dating back to the late nineteenth century. It has historically been one of the most regulated industries, in terms of health, safety and the environment. It is also a global industry. Its size, the importance of its products, its long history of innovation and regulation, and the way that it is globally entwined, not just within, but between other sectors, make it a valuable, and fruitful, industry to study.

For the implementation of green chemistry, there are key elements of the technical and social system that interact strongly, and play a large part in determining whether green chemistry projects are successful or not. The details of the system differ among sectors and geographies. The Chinese, American and Indian cases illustrate some of these differences.

The successful implementation of green chemistry innovations involves cooperation between many sectors: academic, industrial, government and society. Green chemistry is dependent on both strong science and engineering, as well as on a variety of trends in economics, markets, and policy. While there have been great advances in the underlying science needed to make green chemistry possible to implement, the actual rate of change has been slow. Still, there has been demonstrable progress.  Interviews and workshops with key members of the green chemistry community in the United States, India and China have revealed the most important barriers to its successful implementation. From these barriers, the cases, and interview and workshop data, there are a number of multi-stakeholder policy approaches and partnership models that would have a positive impact on the development and implementation of green chemistry technologies throughout the chemical industry.