In the future, European society will need to rely on sustainable growth rather than destructive consumption. Chemistry and chemical engineering are in a unique position to offer solutions to the apparent paradox of increasing expectations of health and wealth from technology coupled to decreasing environmental pollution as a result of that technology. These disciplines will provide the benign technology to offer efficient, environmentally friendly routes to new products, and at the same time deliver the means to monitor and interpret the influence of humans on the planet. For the chemical industry, the fundamental idea at the heart of sustainable manufacturing processes is the efficient and rational use of all resources involved in those processes. The most significant reasons for adopting and following this idea are: environmental benefits arising from reduced emission into water and air, less waste for disposal and reduced consumption of water (used in heating/cooling processes) prudent use of resources for finite, non-renewable, materials (for example petroleum oil, metal ores) economic advantages from cost saving which enable companies to remain competitive in global markets demonstration by industry to other stakeholders in society of a responsible, caring approach to the environment and to the planet's resources The environmental issues facing the citizens of Europe require four main approaches: analysis of what is in the environment (benign and hostile substances) and the monitoring of their effects repair of environmental damage, including preservation of our cultural heritage prevention and reduction of the environmental load, which will be addressed through developments in benign and clean technologies certain to have the greatest medium term influence increasing the efficiency of resource-consuming processes, with an emphasis on the course and nature of future energy supplies The arenas for major activity will be the planetary atmosphere (troposphere and stratosphere), planetary waters (river, estuarine, coastal) and the soil, as well as the preservation of our resources combined with recycling.

There are two issues with powerful research requirements: increasingly accurate analysis and monitoring of contaminants, and a careful analysis and understanding of the effects and ultimate fate of compounds in the environment. For the first, this means knowing what is there, where it is, precisely how much there is of it and where it is going. For the second, 'bio-degradation', we need to know the speed with and way in which a particular compound is changing, what is being formed from it, what effects these by-products are having, whether there is a problem and at what level and how to manage the system. Life-cycle assessment of both man-made and natural products will grow increasingly important. Research into analytical methodologies requires ever more careful, non-destructive sampling techniques and the development and exploitation of known and new spectrometries, diffraction and magnetic or electron resonance techniques. These activities are carried out in collaboration with physicists and engineers. Coupled to the introduction of ever more sensitive analytical techniques must be the development of increasingly reliable sensors of natural and man-made contaminants in air, water and solids and for on-line analysis of chemical and chemically-related process control. We need better computer modelling of the distribution of compounds in the environment and a knowledge of the distribution and transformation processes of contaminants in air, water, soil and food chains. Research into the effects of chemicals in the environment must grow in sophistication. We need to know more about the way in which atmosphere-borne contaminants are transferred to plants, the extent to which soil contaminants are absorbed by grazing animals and how xenobiotic chemicals affect populations and ecosystems. We need to develop and validate effective integrated models of input and transfer processes in the environment (see Life processes). The standardisation of the data structure and the fundamentals of evaluation - which should include examination of system boundaries, weighting factors for energy and material consumption, waste disposal, life cycle assessment of materials and products, etc - will lead to a systematic approach to the overall social impact assessment of chemicals in the European environment.

Repair of previous damage to the environment will be required for many years. Research leading to new and improved cleaning techniques will allow previously impossible repairs to be carried out economically. Three major activities can be identified: direct repair, soil cleaning and conservation management of waste, process water, household refuse, animal fertilisers and sludge measurement and assessment techniques to monitor the effectiveness of repair Investigations of degradation processes in soils are necessary, especially of organic contaminants such as mineral oil components, polyaromatic and halogenated hydrocarbons and of natural organic solid constituents such a fungi and metabolites. It is essential to establish just how clean a soil really is and to introduce international standardisation of analytical procedures, including methods of sampling and sample preparation. Cleaning may initially be effected by immobilisation, such as entrapment of heavy metals or toxic organic materials, so requiring investigation of new polymeric materials, including glasses, which are both compatible with the immobilised materials and with the environment. A knowledge of lifetime cycles of such immobilising materials will be critical. The chemistry of the atmosphere is extremely complex and, while some aspects are quite well-understood, new facts are continually coming to light which modify the understanding and hence the interpretation of what is happening in the troposphere (closest to us and essentially the air we breathe) and the stratosphere. Ozone is present in both the troposphere and the stratosphere and is a 'Jekyll and Hyde' molecule. Consisting of three bound atoms of oxygen, it is a very powerful oxidising agent, but is also capable of capturing harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun. While the tropospheric behaviour of ozone can be extremely unpleasant, causing destruction of living matter through oxidation, it is vital that this gas is present in the stratosphere so that it can fulfil its role as an 'interceptor' of UV B rays, a potential skin cancer agent. This remarkable molecule is the protector of life at the surface of our planet and, although its chemistry in the stratosphere was thought to be reasonably well understood, new research has revealed that its behaviour is more complicated than previously believed. Research into the photochemical and dynamic behaviour of relatively simple gases is therefore vital to the understanding of the chemistry of our atmosphere and is of the utmost importance to the survival of life on this planet. In this area, in which many short-lived molecules and ions play a role, theoretical and computational chemistry may be the economical tool to replace and complement difficult laboratory work. As in several other research lines, the development of software designed for innovative high performance computers is the key to success in simulating the processes governing the chemistry of the atmosphere.

How do we make the chemicals that we need without also making unwanted and unpleasant by-products and without disturbing the environment or exhausting irreplaceable materials? The search for more environmentally benign substitutes for the solvents widely used in industry is a current challenge facing both academic and industrial scientists. Carbon dioxide (CO2) as a supercritical fluid is an interesting alternative and can be used as a solvent in synthetic processes and extraction. Supercritical fluids are substances which do not normally exist but can be created under certain combinations of pressure and temperature. Supercritical CO2 is now in general use for the extraction of caffeine in the food industry and supercritical air in eliminating toxic wastes. By using special components or additives like detergents or saccharides, it is also possible to use water in place of organic solvents as a reaction medium. Research in the field of oxidation reactions and processes is leading to the use of elemental oxygen, hydrogen peroxide and ozone as alternatives to chlorine and other chlorinated oxidising agents in the industrial bleaching process of pulp paper. For the purification of products which is essential in quality control, new processes of crystallisation in melted solids are being developed which avoid completely the need to use fluid solvents.

The protection of the environment needs new techniques for treatment and disposal of wastes. The Earth's resources are not inexhaustible and some raw materials will eventually become limited in supply. Because of these combined problems, recycling technology is becoming a growing priority for society. Recycling some materials like metals and paper occurs now, although improvement of the technology is still necessary (see Mastering molecular matter). However, plastics and polymers are the basis of very many manufactured materials but, at the end of their useful lives, recovery, recycling and/or conversion to new materials or energy requires new and challenging technology. The method of recycling depends on the nature of the polymer. Using the processes of the petroleum industry, such as catalytic cracking, hydro-cracking and catalytic hydrogenation, polyolefins (polyethylene, polystyrene, etc) may be transformed into light hydrocarbons which are useful as lubricants or fuels. Gasification processes transform polyolefins into a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide which is a very valuable industrial fuel. Thermal depolymerisation cracks the plastic waste material into the constituent molecules from which they were made (the monomers). The process of chemiolysis is being used to reconvert polyurethanes, polyamides and polyesters into their corresponding monomers and the purity and the quality of such monomers obtained by these recycling processes are good enough for the synthesis of new polymers. The use of natural fats and oils, sugars and starch as raw materials in the chemical industry is both a challenge and an opportunity. It is a challenge because of the problem of integrating natural products, which often have very complex compositions, into modern processing and production pathways. These production processes are often limited by ecological and economical considerations and must produce marketable products. It is an opportunity because the use of natural products, which are renewable resources, can be seen as a long-term contribution to sustainable development. In the case of natural (non-petroleum) oils we expect, through the agencies of modern plant breeding methods and gene technology, better raw materials as a means for easier processing and for the development of new products with completely new properties. In the case of sugars there are opportunities for new applications in medicine and crop protection as well as in cosmetics and in the production of fine chemicals (see Caring for our planet).

Conservation involves preserving the integrity of an artefact, be it a building, a statue, a painting, furniture, glassware, silverware, jewellery or fabrics. That may require the repair of small or large parts of the object, stabilisation of its colour and texture and protection of its surface against corrosion, physical wear, heat and/or excessive light. The cleaning of artefacts requires the use of detergents, acids, alkalis, sequestering agents and organic solvents, all of which must be applied to the object with minimal damage. Consequently, detailed knowledge is needed of the nature of the material - its age, its constituents and the fabrication process - coupled to an understanding of the chemistry of cleaning and the subsequent stabilisation of the cleaned surface. The preservation of stone in old buildings depends not just on an knowledge of local airborne pollutants and annual climatic variations but also of their behaviour with the preserving materials. Repairs of articles may require adhesives which match the original joints, as well as new resinous materials for filling cracks, glazes for ceramics and paints for in-painting. Millions of books in libraries throughout Europe are in jeopardy, slowly deteriorating because the paper is naturally unstable in air. There will be increasing demands for easily applied conservation techniques which require greater knowledge of paper chemistry and printing dyes and their behaviour towards conservation agents.