2. The twelve founding proposals

2.1 Prevent pollution

Chemistry suffers from a brand image tainted by old dogmas based on key facts from the industrial boom. The direct pollution of the atmosphere and soil by uncontrolled discharges of toxic effluents has done little to popularize this science, which nonetheless finds itself at the heart of our society through its applications. Great efforts have been made to control these discharges, and the first principle of green chemistry is prevention. Thanks to better control of all product life cycles, it is now possible to prevent the formation of polluting waste, rather than having to treat...