About the Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry

Thanks to a generous gift from an individual donor, all gifts to the Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry will be matched 100% during this fundraising drive! 

Thank you for helping us make the most of this unique fundraising opportunity!

For the last 13 years, the Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry has led a series of interdisciplinary, project-based programs, including; courses, fellowships, symposiums and an internship program, all with the goal of developing safer alternatives to hazardous chemicals used in products and processes. Our flagship program, the Greener Solutions graduate course, brings together students in chemistry, environmental health, and engineering to understand each other’s disciplines, and to work with an external partner to identify and develop safer materials for safer products.

Through this course, these interdisciplinary teams of UC Berkeley students have successfully identified safer alternatives to preservatives in personal care products, PFAS-free durable water-repellant coatings for outerwear, replacements for formaldehyde in clothing manufacturing and compostable adhesives for product labels (PLU stickers) in the grocery store.

In addition to undertaking a bio-inspired design process to identify safer alternatives based on naturally occurring chemical processes, the students assess the potential health and environmental hazards associated with each of their proposed alternatives relative to hazards of the current chemistries. We also partner with community groups that advocate for populations that are disproportionately affected by the challenge chemical, including Black Women for Wellness and Breast Cancer Prevention Partners, to ensure that the students have a full understanding of the current and historic impact of chemical hazard exposure in daily life.

Upon completing our courses, students can continue to work on the challenge of innovating safer materials by participating in our Greener Partnerships internship program. Examples of student internship projects include working with the USTMA to identify alternatives to toxic 6PPD in tires, partnering with Bay Area startup Sway to test moisture barrier and stretch strength properties of seaweed-based plastics, and working with the International Association for Firefighters to identify and advocate for safer materials in firefighter turnout.

The Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry programs have brought about product reformulations, new products, scientific publications and, most importantly, a new generation of chemists and engineers who are trained in a systems approach to design: one that more fully considers the health, community and environmental implications of chemical and material choices.