Green chemistry contribution towards more equitable global sustainability and greater circular economy: A systematic literature review

Abstract Green chemistry has been a major driver of sustainable development and had an important diffusion in recent years. In order to investigate the state of the art in this field, a systematic literature review has been performed, also identifying possible developments for future research. In particular, the aim of this research is to investigate how Green Chemistry (GC), Sustainability and Circular Economy (CE) concepts are related to each other and how researchers are addressing and analyzing this relation. Since the nature of chemistry is to produce intermediate goods that are generally used by other industries, the focus has been mainly placed on industrial sector. In other words, chemistry involves most of production systems. According to systematic literature review methodology, different research questions were formulated, in order to schematize and to get a comprehensive view about the evolution of green chemistry research. The selected articles were analyzed through different criteria, including the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) framework, and were divided into different clusters, according to purposes, impacts and scope of each research. The analysis of papers shows that chemical industry is able to contribute to a fair transition towards a greater economic, environmental and social sustainability. Even if the main focus of GC is the environment, GC is getting closer to TBL pillars, representing the main tool for chemical industry to implement Sustainable Chemistry (SC) system and to realize the transition towards sustainability and CE. Finally, main results were summarized in a framework that shows the connections among systems and tools, highlighting main synergies. Results highlight how GC is the tool through which it is possible realize the SC system. In particular, the SC, in a CE system, can be involved in processes of production and recycling, ensuring more sustainable environmental, economic and social systems. Furthermore, results show how GC and CE are getting closer to each other highlighting the ongoing alignment of purposes among different tools and adopted approaches in a holistic vision.

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