How a simple form can make labs safer and more sustainable

Since time immemorial, or at least since the advent of the scientific method, researchers and innovators have developed and introduced new chemical entities to the environment before fully understanding them. Only later do the originators or others study and recognize any harm caused by their products.That’s why a concept known as Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) has recently begun spreading through the chemical sciences. This approach has roots firmly planted in green chemistry, and although it has emerged from regulatory frameworks in the European Union, SSbD is gaining traction far beyond a single continent’s borders.Don’t panic! There’s no new raft of legislation coming your way. Applying the SSbD principles is entirely voluntary.So, what is SSbD? It’s a way to marshal the ever-growing knowledge and understanding of what leads to health, environmental, and societal harm to prevent regrettable introductions of new chemical entities. Not surprisingly, most of the discussion about SSbD has focused on businesses and what they might do, particularly as technologies approach commercialization. There is a whole discipline dedicated to how to measure the sustainability of chemicals and processes, with ever more sophisticated tools being introduced to enable this. Most of these tools require both the consideration of a great deal of information and for people to spend a substantial amount of time doing the analysis. The level of resources required to implement these processes makes it important to be sure people know the costs before implementing them.For those who want to bring SSbD to academic and other