Degree in Green Chemistry at Gordon College
Our department emphasizes green chemistry — a commitment to practice chemistry in a manner that is intentionally safer for human health and the environment. We believe that the green chemistry movement resonates with the character and commitments of Gordon College. Our mission statement describes Gordon as “a Christian community of the liberal arts, dedicated to the historic, evangelical, biblical faith.” As such, this academic community looks to the Bible as our authoritative guide for Christian faith and practice, and one important theme we see in the Bible regarding the practice of Christian faith is its clear calling for Christians to be good stewards of all that God has given us. We also affirm the clear biblical teaching that God created the physical world, pronounced His creation good, and placed it under the care of humankind. Accordingly, we believe that the broad biblical calling to Christian stewardship entails the responsibility to practice wise stewardship of the physical world. The green chemistry movement seeks to promote chemistry that is by design environmentally benign, and as chemistry faculty members at Gordon College, we see this green chemistry imperative (as embodied, for example, by the Twelve Principles of Green Chemistry) as completely concordant with our Christian calling to care for the environment as God’s good stewards. We find that our students share this vision of green chemistry as an outworking of their call to Christian stewardship, and they are enthusiastic about the opportunity provided by the ideas of green chemistry to see their study and practice of chemistry as directly connected to the practice of their faith.
As a founding member of the Green Chemistry Education Network, we are working at the forefront of the movement to make chemistry green by engaging in education and outreach activities that bring the principles of green chemistry to students, faculty and the general public in New England and beyond. At Gordon you will have the opportunity to learn more about green chemistry and to join us in our efforts to make the practice of chemistry “benign by design.