"Every chemist should be required to walk through a TSR&TP poster session before they create something." - John Warner, green chemistry pioneer

"Why in 2008 do we still have hazardous materials in commerce?" began John Warner, CEO of Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry for his keynote address at the 2008 TSR&TP Symposium in Riverside.

Warner traced his evolution from rock star to green chemistry pioneer. As a college student, he was convinced he would be a famous musician. His rock band "The Elements" was gaining notoriety and he was enjoying the limelight. Then, his bandmate got leukemia and died six months later. Warner became consumed by the need to know how this could happen. He joined an undergraduate chemistry research project, spending 60 hours a week in the lab and publishing several papers. Before he graduated, Warner was asked to speak at the American Chemical Society meeting and he was selected as one of Boston's Best and Brightest College Seniors of 1984 and was featured in Celebrity Magazine for his chemistry work.

After receiving his doctorate in Chemistry from Princeton, Warner was offered a job at Polaroid to develop new processes for instant photography. The result was noncovalent derivatization - a process used to control the rate of dissolution of molecules in a multi-layered system. This was one of the first implementations of nanotechnology and Polaroid needed US Environmental Protection Agency approval for the materials. The request was denied because the EPA didn't understand the technology, so Polaroid sent Warner to Washington DC to give a seminar.

While in DC, Warner met Paul Anastas in the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics. Anastas had been in the same undergraduate chemistry lab as Warner and they re-ignited friendship and a new working relationship. "If Polaroid can develop a low energy nonhazardous reagent, what do you call it?" asked Warner. He and Anastas coined the term green chemistry to explain the effort to solve pollution problems from the design stage rather than post-production. Warner stressed that "Green chemistry has to be practiced in the real world and it has to meet 3 criteria: it must be more economical, it must be safe and it must increase quality performance."

Warner and Anastas created an awards program for companies to acknowledge green chemistry, the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge. They also wrote a book on the 12 principles of green chemistry: the design of chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use and generation of hazardous substances. The book has since been translated into 14 languages.

Tragedy struck Warner's life again when his 2 year old son died from a liver birth defect. He wondered if some chemical he touched in his job or was exposed to caused his son's birth defect. He never had a course in toxicology. "How could I be such a successful scientist and have no idea of the toxic effects of chemicals?" He marveled at his Princeton doctorate requirement of translating an article from French to English and from German to English. "And to get a degree in chemistry, not one university requires a course in toxicology or environmental impact." Warner purported that we have hazardous materials in our society because the people who invent molecules don't know how to do it any other way. "Every chemist should be required to walk through a TSR&TP poster session before they create something."

Warner left Polaroid in 2004 and went to the University of Massachusetts to create the world's first graduate program in Green Chemistry. No course requirements were removed from the chemistry program - courses in toxicology, sustainable design, and environmental law and policy, and experimental conceptualization were added. "Industry is desperate to have this kind of information," said Warner. "The longest it has taken one of the program's graduates to get a job is 3 weeks."

"Of all the products we use, at best maybe 10 percent are benign. If every environmental law is enacted, we might get 25%. But to reach the 65% benign mark, we have to invent better products." Green chemistry is good product development.

Warner stressed that we have to create the demand for green materials. Equally important, we have to meet demand on the supply side. Since Rachel Carson's Silent Spring there has been huge growth in environmental regulations. Industry does not have the tools to move to green chemistry because not enough people have been trained. The Green Chemistry Research and Development Act of 2006 was a good starting point to filling the toolbox.

Warner recently created the Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry to show that material engineering can be done better. He is also working on propagating green chemistry curricula throughout university systems. He cited the success of one university program: "Within a month of adding green chemistry to their website, they had a 3-fold increase in applications to their program."

John Warner would like to put green chemistry out of business. Toxicity and environmental impact should be part of the physical properties taught about materials. He is convinced the next generation of students will make this happen. "Society wants safe materials. Industry wants to make safe materials. It's our job to help them learn and together save the world."

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