A Simple Sustainability Index for the Chemical Industry

A number of methodologies for providing quantification of sustainability for chemical processes have been developed over the last decade. None seem to have gained broad adoption, however, perhaps due to complexity and/or lack of availably of required information. In the current absence of full life cycle data for the bulk of raw materials used in the chemical industry, we propose a scoring system based on readily available information, and using this present a basic set of metrics, based on the Twelve Principles of Green Chemistry, that may be used to develop a sustainability index for production of a given chemical product. Applicability of this index to the social aspects of sustainability will also be considered.