- Department:Comprehensive Planning Division
The Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Education jointly held the "Green Chemistry for Sustainable Prosperity - Joint Award Ceremony and Achievement Presentation" today (9th May) to deepen green chemistry concepts and expand promotion effectiveness. Outstanding groups and creative talents from campuses to industries gathered together, promoting green chemistry research concepts and achievements through public recognition and exchange. The event was presided over by Minister Peng Chi-ming of the Ministry of Environment and Minister Cheng Ying-yao of the Ministry of Education, with enthusiastic on-site interactions contributing endless momentum to green chemistry.
Awards presented included the "4th Green Chemistry Application and Innovation Award" to encourage industry; the "4th University Green Chemistry Creativity Competition" and "2024 Senior High School Green Chemistry Creativity Competition" to inspire university and high school students' creativity and promote the 12 principles of green chemistry emphasizing toxicity reduction, waste reduction, energy conservation, and safety. A total of 72 individuals and teams received awards. The ceremony also featured a video congratulation from internationally renowned green chemistry scholar John C. Warner, adding international prestige to this grand event.
"This not only recognizes technology developers but also tells the world that we can do it," John C. Warner stated in his video congratulation. He pointed out that chemical applications range widely from space technology to medical innovation, from high-tech to transportation, but simultaneously bring environmental and health risks and hazards. John C. Warner emphasized that the chemical industry and environment are not adversaries; continued chemical development and progress will still benefit the world, as currently only about 10-15% of technologies are sufficient to support fully sustainable living, meaning 90% of technologies still need development. Therefore, green chemistry concepts need to enter high school curricula early to foster innovative solutions.
The "4th Green Chemistry Application and Innovation Award" hosted by the Ministry of Environment received 80 applications, ultimately selecting 16 outstanding organizations and 9 individuals from various sectors including industry, government, academia, and research. Beyond large enterprises, small and medium enterprises were also included, with all winning units serving as important forces driving Taiwan's green chemistry development and serving as models for various sectors. Group winners focused on chemical substance substitution, non-toxic processes, disaster prevention and response, and technological chemical substance management, effectively conducting risk control to promote industrial transition toward green sustainability. In the individual category, this year included lifetime achievement recipients who have deeply cultivated green chemistry research and education, implementing concepts in daily life and teaching to inspire younger generations and establish foundations for future sustainable development.
The Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Education jointly organized the "4th University Green Chemistry Creativity Competition" and "2024 Senior High School Green Chemistry Creativity Competition" to encourage young students' participation in green chemistry. Green dreams take flight from campuses, with this year's entries fully demonstrating students' creativity and potential, receiving high praise from judges.
Minister Peng Chi-ming of the Ministry of Environment stated that since humans "learned to use fire" for cooking, chemistry has been present in every corner of daily life. Currently facing environmental pollution and climate change, chemistry is also an important field in discussing countermeasures. This year's winners from both industry and education sectors have highlights, including leading enterprises like TSMC and AUO, as well as small and medium enterprises like CH Biotech developing green hydrolysis technology, using water to replace chemical agents to convert agricultural waste into more sustainable fertilizers, and Taiwan Chlorine Industries designing disaster prevention and response processes with green chemistry principles. The university group's gold award for creating green insulation building materials from banana waste resources also deeply impressed Minister Peng, who praised the outstanding performance of winning students, saying "What you're doing isn't far from TSMC; TSMC can cultivate these talents early."
Minister Cheng Ying-yao of the Ministry of Education affirmed students' approach of starting from their surroundings, making discoveries, conducting experiments, and proposing solutions, willing to contribute to environmental protection and creating shared prosperity through daily life practices. The "4th University Green Chemistry Creativity Competition" had 62 teams registered, ultimately selecting 19 winning teams with creativity including utilizing large amounts of pseudostem waste from Taiwan's banana industry for green building materials and pioneering new frontiers in carbon capture technology through original techniques. The "2024 Senior High School Green Chemistry Creativity Competition" had 133 teams registered, selecting 23 winning teams and 5 school awards, with creativity including using cocoa shells to create biochar for activating persulfate to degrade tetracycline, and using Australian pine fruit biochar to adsorb heavy metals from water while avoiding difficult-to-process chemical materials, reducing pollution during the manufacturing process.
The Ministry of Environment stated that environmental protection and sustainable development issues require cross-domain cooperation and coordination. To deepen exchanges between different fields, today (9th May) besides holding the award ceremony, achievement presentations were simultaneously held at 1:30 PM at the same location, inviting winning teams to share their achievements. The event aims to facilitate mutual exchange through award ceremonies and achievement presentation activities, conveying honor and knowledge, and aspire to pass down experience from generation to generation, promote exchange and learning between industry and academia, stimulate related energy and promote green chemistry concepts, encouraging public participation in green chemistry promotion efforts to jointly move toward an environmentally friendly, sustainably prosperous future.
Award content is available on the Ministry of Environment (Chemicals Administration) "Green Chemistry Application and Innovation Award" website (https://topic.moenv.gov.tw/gcai/mp-9.html), "University Green Chemistry Creativity Competition" website (https://topic.moenv.gov.tw/gcic/mp-13.html), and the Ministry of Education "2024 Senior High School Green Chemistry Creativity Competition" website (https://chem.moe.edu.tw/green/News). All sectors are welcome to browse.
