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3.2.1. Green chemistry in education
The topic of green chemistry can be incorporated into all levels of chemistry education. All 
existing chemistry courses can adopt greener practices and new scientific, ecological, 
economical and socio-cultural concepts. (Anastas & Kirchhoff, 2002; Andraos & Dicks, 
2012; Karpudewan et al., 2011; Karpudewan, Ismail & Roth, 2012; Liu, Lin & Tsai, 2010; 
Mandler et al., 2012)
Teaching concepts related to green chemistry seem to be more common in higher chemistry 
education (Karpudewan et al., 2011; Poliakoff et al., 2002; Singh et al., 1999). They are also 
present in chemistry teacher education (Kaivola, 2007). One example of green chemistry in 

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action is the suggestion that in balanced equations, the term ‘yield’ should be replaced with 
the term ’atom economy’ (Anastas & Kirchhoff, 2002). However, as of yet there are only few 
green chemistry lesson plans available for the basic school level (see Aksela & Boström, 
2012). 
Green chemistry brings ethics into ”pure chemistry”. Ethics are a system of moral principles 
that deal with the rightness and wrongness of certain actions and the goodness and badness of 
the motives and end results of such actions. If green chemistry is to be incorporated into 
lessons at all school levels, should not the questions of ”why is this right to do?” and ”why 
not?” be asked more often? (Vilches & Gil-Pérez, 2013). Considering that the principles of 
green chemistry (see Section 3.1.1.) are a part of basic learning and understanding of a certain 
technology. The issues involved are often socio-scientific (see Section 3.2.3.) and discuss 
whether a certain chemistry procedure should be abandoned, changed or accepted as it is 
(Hartings & Fahy, 2011; Tundo et al., 2000). In practice the topics may include, for instance, 
water or carbon cycles (Mandler et al., 2012), waste to product ratios (Eissen, 2012), selection 
of chemicals or catalysts (Poliakoff et al., 2002) or micro-scale experimentation (Singh et al., 
1999). 
However, educators must be careful not to ”green wash” neither the common practices nor the 
chemical industry. It should be kept in mind that the concepts of ”green” and ”sustainable” 
are criticised for promising endless material and economical growth, even though there is no 
evidence to suggest it is possible for all people (Eskelinen, 2011). Educators and chemists 
must be aware of the complexity of evaluating the total impact of developed technologies. 
The total impact includes variables related to the three dimensions of sustainable 
development, environmental health and the well-being of creatures. True green chemistry is 
therefore a lofty goal, which can only be realised by devoted people who are competent in 
implementing it in all fields of chemistry fields – including chemistry education.