Introduction

In 1987, the World Commission on Environment and Development first proposed the concept of “Sustainable Development” which was widely recognized by the international community. In this case, the emergence of green chemistry became a general trend in the field of chemistry and chemical engineering. Over the next three decades, there is a strong international commitment to green chemistry education [1-11]. Being influenced by the worldwide boom of “green chemistry”, the China Central Government became aware of the importance of green chemistry and considered the development of green chemistry as a major component and driving force of social development. In 1990, the “China Sustainable Development Strategy Report” was proposed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences to reduce the destruction by the traditional extensive economy model to the ecological environment. Subsequently, the report of the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) formally pointed out a “Scientific Outlook on Development”. In May 1997, the 72nd Xiangshan Science Conference [12] was held with the theme of “The Challenge of Sustainable Development to Science – Green Chemistry”, which was the first time the concept of green chemistry was pointed out in China. Since then, the development of green chemistry has achieved an explosive growth both in industry and academia. The rapid development of green chemistry can hardly happen without publicity, education, policy, etc. In this article, we aim to present the latest progress on green chemistry education and activities in China, according to the frameworks as summarized in Figure 1.

Green chemistry education

For the last several decades, many students, not only in China but also around the world, have been faced in chemistry education with issues such as coping with the hole in the ozone layer, keeping water resources clean, and searching for both renewable sources of energy and raw materials. Hence, adding green and sustainability issues to the chemistry curricula or developing systematic green chemistry education is irresistible. On the other hand, green chemistry education is considered the cornerstone of green chemistry development. Therefore, it constitutes one of the most innovative and challenging tasks in chemistry worldwide. Green chemistry education aims at incorporating information about green chemistry into chemical education, thus being called to design suitable options for all the broad educational areas – curriculum development, teaching, learning and outreach, from in-class activities to laboratory experiments to the dissemination of information to the public. At present, China’s green chemistry education keeps pace with the international development. Typically, a large number of green chemistry courses have been opened in universities and colleges. Diverse publications also come out.