Green Chemistry for Climate and Sustainability
Published: Launching in August 2025
Description
With over 96% of all manufactured goods touched by the chemistry enterprise, there is an urgent need for professionals who can lead the chemicals sector to one that simultaneously maximizes product function while addressing climate change and sustainability concerns. The challenges posed by many commercial chemicals to society, the climate and the environment have become increasingly clear in recent years as have the solutions to those challenges. The Certificate Program in Green Chemistry for Climate and Sustainability is committed to teaching Green Chemistry and Green Engineering applications to address global and local challenges related to both the Global South as well as industrialized nations, and will include fundamental knowledge of the drivers, barriers and opportunities to implement safer chemicals and processes. As the global community pursues the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, companies will be looking for guidance from professionals trained in sustainable practices. This program is designed for public, private and nonprofit professionals and advanced students who share an interest in creating a more sustainable chemical enterprise. The program does not require an extensive background in chemistry.
The Green Chemistry for Climate and Sustainability Certificate Program is a 9-month, online, admissions-based curriculum for professionals and students in the chemical enterprise and related fields who wish to use the power and potential of green and sustainable chemistry and engineering to mitigate global climate and environmental challenges.
Course Takeaways
- Understand the power of Green Chemistry and Green Engineering principles in addressing global and local challenges related to climate and sustainability.
- Utilize knowledge and tools to reduce hazards in the chemical enterprise by using the intersection between science and technology with societal, economic, policy, cultural, and ethical factors.
- Learn about the innovative power of Green Chemistry and Green Engineering to create sustainable solutions.
- Leverage opportunities and learn how to overcome barriers to creating sustainable businesses by examining business and environmental regulatory drivers.
- Learners will expand a worldwide professional network and develop the skills to become leaders in the chemical enterprise as it responds to climate and sustainability challenges.
Meet the Instructors
Paul T. Anastas is credited with establishing the field of green chemistry in 1991 during his time working for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as the Chief of the Industrial Chemistry Branch and as the founding Director of the U.S. Green Chemistry Program. Dr. Anastas has published widely on topics of science through sustainability.
Biography
Dr. Julie Zimmerman is an internationally recognized engineer whose work is focused on advancing innovations in sustainable technologies. Dr. Zimmerman serves as Yale's inaugural Vice Provost for Planetary Solutions. She holds joint appointments as a Professor in the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and School of the Environment at Yale University and serves as the Deputy Director of Center for Green Chemistry & Green Engineering at Yale.
Her pioneering work established the fundamental framework for her field with her seminal publications on the “Twelve Principles of Green Engineering” in 2003. The framework, in conjunction with Green Chemistry, is guiding the innovation of products and processes in academia and industry including her own research group on topics that include breakthroughs for the integrated biorefinery, carbon dioxide valorization, designing safer chemicals and materials, novel materials for water treatment, and analyses of the water-energy nexus. Professor Zimmerman is the co-author of the textbook, Environmental Engineering: Fundamentals, Sustainability, Design that is used in the engineering programs at leading universities domestically and abroad. In addition, Dr. Zimmerman is the Editor in Chief for Environmental Science & Technology, is a Member of the Connecticut Academy of Sciences, and Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Prior to coming to Yale University, Dr. Zimmerman was a program manager at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency where she established the national sustainable design competition, P3 (People, Prosperity, and Planet) Award, which has engaged thousands of students from hundreds of universities across the U.S. since its inception in 2004. Dr. Zimmerman earned her B.S. from the University of Virginia and her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan jointly from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the School of Environmental and Sustainability.
Margaret E. Kerr is a Visiting Professor and Director of Education at the Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering, Yale University School of the Environment. She received her B.S. degree in Chemistry from the University of Maine and her Ph.D. from Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT in Inorganic Chemistry. She did post-doctoral research at the University of Florida and was offered a position as a Senior Staff Scientist at Fina Oil and Chemical in Houston, TX. She worked for two years developing metallocene catalysts for polypropylene synthesis before taking a position as a faculty member at Worcester State University in Worcester, MA where she was a Professor of Chemistry with a focus on research in green chemistry. She was awarded a Fulbright Senior Scholar Grant in 2007 to promote green chemistry curriculum development at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand and was awarded a Fulbright Specialist grant in 2023 at Chulalongkorn University to promote green chemistry practices within industry in Thailand.