By John Michitson and Seth J. Itzkan

Invitation to Jump-start Green Chemistry Industry in the Merrimack Valley

Our mission is to help jump-start a new industry of Green Chemistry in the Merrimack Valley. Green Chemistry is a practice that reduces or eliminates the use of hazardous materials manufacturing. It has been demonstrated that materials and products can be designed with negligible impact on human health and the environment while still being successful in the marketplace. Green Chemistry shows great promise in a wide swath of growing industries, from pharmaceuticals to electronics, to industrial resources, such as solvents and adhesives.

The Merrimack Valley is already a nexus for Green Chemistry education. Particularly, it is home to the Center for Green Chemistry at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. This is the only Ph.D. granting program of its kind in the country and is directed by Dr. John Warner, the foremost authority on the topic. This gives us an unprecedented opportunity to recreate a Green Chemistry manufacturing hub in the region. The innovations and innovators are here. We have a workforce capable of sustaining new industrial endeavors in this field.

To this end, we are proposing to develop a Green Chemistry Research and Demonstration Center, the Bradford Institute, to be the catalyst for a Green Chemistry industry in our region and a global contributor. Our rough draft plans for the Bradford Institute are enclosed in this BLOG entry. We have chosen an “open source” approach (e.g. globally accessible plans) to developing the not-for-profit Bradford Institute, so that it can be formulated collaboratively by all of its stakeholders, including academia, all levels of government, manufacturing companies, investors, global thought leaders in Green Chemistry, commercial developers, environmentally conscious citizens, and even public schools to help train the workforce of tomorrow.

While our strategic advantage is the domain expertise, global stature and energy that Dr. John Warner brings to our team and region, we realize that global partnerships are essential. We are establishing relationships with interested stakeholders and partners regarding business development, legal, investor, environmental, academic and civic matters.

Please consider this BLOG as a resource for collaborating on how to jumpstart a Green Chemistry industry. Please reply to BLOG entries with any pertinent information and/or indicate if you would like author priviledges to be a regular contributor. You can seperately contact us at info@ivalley.org

Germane links below:

Bradford College Green Chemistry Center Proposal
Blog Article
http://www.ivalley.orghttp://ivalley.org/blog/?p=37

UMASS Lowell Center for Green Chemistry
http://www.greenchemistry.uml.edu/

Green Chemistry Presentation by Dr. John Warner
http://www.greenchemistry.uml.edu/html/director.htm

Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award
http://www.epa.gov/greenchemistry/pubs/pgcc/presgcc.html

Contact: John Michitson & Seth Itzkan about this proposal
info@ivalley.org