What Sustainable Chemistry Actually Means with Professor Tom Welton
What does sustainable chemistry really mean and why does it matter far beyond the lab?
In this episode of Clear Haze Exchange, Marcus Hazelwood speaks with Professor Tom Welton, OBE, Emeritus Professor of Sustainable Chemistry at Imperial College London and the world’s first professor of sustainable chemistry.
Professor Welton shares how sustainable chemistry evolved as both a field and a mindset, why the gap between theory and application is often larger than people expect, and how words like green and sustainable can sometimes mislead more than they clarify.
This conversation explores the hidden systems behind sustainable science and innovation, including product development, lifecycle analysis, behavior change, research incentives, and the long road from lab discovery to real-world deployment.
In this episode, we discuss:
- The difference between green chemistry and sustainable chemistry
- Why sustainability is often best understood as a mindset
- How “green” ideas can fail under operational or financial pressure
- Why life cycle analysis matters when evaluating products and materials
- What universities get right, and wrong, about innovation
- Why sustainable technologies often take decades to scale
- What gives hope for the future of sustainability in science and education
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