How green chemistry can boost Oregon business

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Imagine a chemist harnessing the properties of marine mussel secretions to create a soy-flour-based adhesive for plywood that is stronger and more moisture resistant than the industry-standard toxic formaldehyde adhesive.

Now what if I told you that this new adhesive costs the same as the old one — but is so environmentally benign that it is compostable and could reduce a mill’s emissions by as much as 95 percent while protecting workers’ health? I’m guessing you’d leap at the chance to use this affordable, sustainable substance. Columbia Forest Products did just that in 2007, and solidified its leadership position in the decorative plywood market.

That is the promise of green chemistry.

Almost every consumer and industrial product produced today is comprised of chemicals. While these chemicals have allowed us to create and innovate in innumerable ways, many of them have also been shown to cause serious harm to our health and to the environment. And as we’ve seen time and again, any product that makes its customers sick and pollutes the environment is, ultimately, a bad business proposition.

Unlike traditional chemistry, green chemistry uses raw materials, new tools and techniques to create chemicals that are safer for consumers and the environment, and more efficient for the businesses that use them. Pioneering Oregon companies such as Nike, Coastwide Laboratories and Blount have been employing green chemistry for a few years now — and it’s boosted these companies’ bottom line.

But even with all this promise, green chemistry still needs to be nurtured into the mainstream. That is something Oregon — with its proven commitment to sustainability, its vast natural resource base, its nationally renowned green chemistry research, and the collaborative way in which its public and private sectors work — is uniquely positioned to do, according to an advisory group convened by the Oregon Environmental Council to look at this issue.

This fall, OEC will host a forum, Growing Green Chemistry in Oregon, for business leaders. It will include a discussion with Paul Anastas of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, who is widely known as the "Father of Green Chemistry;" Jim Hutchison, a leading green chemist at the University of Oregon; and John Frazier, who directs Nike’s Considered Chemistry program that will focus on how we can continue to develop green chemistry in the state and ensure that Oregon businesses are prepared to use fewer and non-toxic chemicals in manufacturing processes and consumer products, responding to growing demand from the public.

If we can realize the promise of green chemistry, we can unleash a new era of entrepreneurialism in Oregon that will create great products, protect our health and the environment — and still make healthy profits for our businesses.

Andrea Durbin is executive director of the Oregon Environmental Council.