The first principle of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development states that Human beings are at the centre of concerns for sustainable deVelopmentsthey are entitled to a healthy and productiVe life in harmony with nature, which highlighted the challenge to all of us to define the objectives of sustainable deVelopment and to provide scientific, technological, and social tools to achieve those objectives. We do not have to look too far back to see how a society could loose its sustainabilitysthe rise and decline of Easter Island, discovered by Polynesians around 400 AD. Its population reached a peak at perhaps more than 10,000, far exceeding the capabilities of the local ecosystem. The forests were cleared for agriculture and to move the giant stone monoliths, known as “Moai”s, from 1400 to 1600. Core sampling from the island has shown deforestation, soil depletion, and erosion resulting in overpopulation, food shortages, and ultimately the collapse of the society. Thus, the history of Easter Island shows that the sustainability of our civilization depends on whether we can supply the rapidly increasing population with enough energy, food, and chemicals simultaneously without compromising the long term health of our planet.

The first principle of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development states that Human beings are at the centre of concerns for sustainable deVelopmentsthey are entitled to a healthy and productiVe life in harmony with nature, which highlighted the challenge to all of us to define the objectives of sustainable deVelopment and to provide scientific, technological, and social tools to achieve those objectives. We do not have to look too far back to see how a society could loose its sustainabilitysthe rise and decline of Easter Island, discovered by Polynesians around 400 AD. Its population reached a peak at perhaps more than 10,000, far exceeding the capabilities of the local ecosystem. The forests were cleared for agriculture and to move the giant stone monoliths, known as “Moai”s, from 1400 to 1600. Core sampling from the island has shown deforestation, soil depletion, and erosion resulting in overpopulation, food shortages, and ultimately the collapse of the society. Thus, the history of Easter Island shows that the sustainability of our civilization depends on whether we can supply the rapidly increasing population with enough energy, food, and chemicals simultaneously without compromising the long term health of our planet.

This thematic issue addresses many aspects of sustainable

development, and the 21 articles demonstrate the complexity

and the rapid progress of many areas of Green Chemistry in

the last decade or so. It is important to note that the

development of green products and processes requires that

chemists and chemical engineers become molecular designers4

and molecular engineers, respectively. They have to

incorporate the properties of chemicals that are relevant to

health and to the environment into the discovery and

development processes. This approach is demonstrated by

the papers on Green Chemistry Considerations in Entropic

Control of Materials and Processes (by S. Trakhtenberg and

J. C. Warner, University of Massachusetts at Lowell, USA),

Design of Sustainable Chemical ProductssThe Example of

Ionic Liquids (by J. Ranke, S. Stolte, R. Sto¨rmann, J. Arning,

and B. Jastorff, University of Bremen, Germany), Designing

Small Molecules for Biodegradability (by R. S. Boethling,

E. Sommer, and D. DiFiore, U.S. Environmental Protection

Agency, USA), Toward Greener Nanosynthesis (by J. A.

Dahl, B. L. S. Maddux, and J. E. Hutchison, University of

Oregon, USA), “Green” Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization:

From Process Design to Preparation of Well-Defined

Environmentally Friendly Polymeric Materials (by N. V.

Tsarevsky and K. Matyjaszewski (Carnegie Mellon University,

USA), Greener Approaches to Organic Synthesis Using

Microreactor Technology (by B. P. Mason, K. E. Price, J.

L. Steinbacher, A. R. Bogdan, and D. T. McQuade, Cornell

University, USA), and Human Pharmaceuticals in the

Aquatic Environment: A Challenge to Green Chemistry (by

S. K. Khetan and T. J. Collins, Carnegie Mellon University,

USA).