Germany Launches Sustainable Chemistry Centre

The German Federal Ministry for the Environment has said that it hopes that the new International Sustainable Chemistry Collaborative Centre (ISC3) in Bonn will encourage communication between countries and regions, as well as the uptake of sustainable chemistries worldwide. The centre was formally launched in May as part of the Second Green and Sustainable Chemistry Conference in Berlin.

ISC3 is supported by GIZ, the German Corporation for International Cooperation. It has received €1.7m in funding from the German federal government for this year, a sum which will increase to €2.4m in 2018. By the end of the year, it should have 20 employees.

A scientific centre, the ISC3 Research Hub, will be developed at Leuphana University in Lüneburg. In addition, a centre for innovation, the ISC3 Innovation Hub, will be created at the headquarters of Dechema, the Society for Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, in Frankfurt.

ISC3 aims to help emerging and developing countries to implement international chemical regulations as well as to support them in the safe handling of chemicals and disposal of waste containing hazardous substances.

Without such transformation in these countries, according to Barbara Hendricks, federal minister for the environment and a speaker at the conference, achieving the 2030 goals of the UN’s Agenda for Sustainable Development will not be possible. "It is in all of our interests to establish capacities for the safe handling of chemicals in such places and to ensure that growth, consumption and production in all countries are as sustainable as possible," she said.

The centre has been launched at precisely the right time, according to Kurt Bock, chairman of the executive board of directors at BASF and president of the German chemical industry association, VCI. With the mandate for the UN’s Saicm ending in 2020, the ISC3 could become an important component of a framework beyond 2020 and could help to achieve the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

There is an urgent demand for action. "At the same time, chemistry is a saint and a sinner," said Borhane Mahjoub, an assistant professor in environmental chemistry at the University of Sousse in Tunisia, another speaker at the conference. "A saint because of the money it brings to the country and the people. A sinner because it is a tremendous polluter."

In Tunisia, chemical companies are responsible for 52% of air pollution and 70% of water pollution. The challenges could grow, as Dr Mahjoub and others noted, because production and consumption of chemicals are increasing worldwide, mainly in developing and emerging countries.