VIU Professors Explore Ways to Go Green in the Chemistry Lab

Glenda Hunter will show off her research at the VIU Sustainability Fair on September 28

When you think of chemistry, the word “green” does not immediately come to mind. By its very name, chemistry implies the use of chemicals, which suggests toxic substances that are harmful to humans and the environment.

Indeed, many of the chemicals traditionally used in school chemistry labs are hazardous, and current regulations call for the materials to either be carted away and either burned or buried. But Glenda Hunter, a science instructor in Vancouver Island University’s (VIU’s) Faculty of Academic and Career Preparation, and Alexandra Weissfloch, a professor in the Chemistry Department, are investigating greener practices in their labs.

Hunter and Weissfloch will showcase their research at VIU’s annual Sustainability Fair, happening on Wednesday, September 28 from 11 am to 2 pm in the Library Quad. The event features about 20 booths to help people review their refuse, brush up on their recycling knowledge, build greater water wisdom and much more.

Participants include Nanaimo Car Share, Project 529 anti-bike theft program, the Regional District of Nanaimo’s Team Watersmart, VIU’s Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Region Research Institute, Vertical Organic Gardens and VIU’s Masters of Community Planning. VIU’s Sustainability Office is teaming up with students in the University’s Master of Arts in Sustainable Leisure Management program to organize the event.

The Sustainability Fair is a VIU event that’s near and dear to Hunter, considering she’s devoted a considerable amount of time to reducing her own carbon footprint. Several years ago, Hunter, who has worked at VIU since 1994, began investigating green chemistry practices to see if there was anything she could do to lessen the impact of her lessons on the environment.

“I came to realize that collecting the waste is a problem,” she remembers. “I thought, ‘How are our practices going to change if we don’t give students the tools they need to change them?’”

Hunter scoured various scientific journals for green lab practices for high school-level chemistry classes and came up with a lot of different options to put together what she calls a preventative chemistry program.

In 2011, Hunter received a VIU research grant to help her put it all together into two green chemistry manuals and textbooks for teachers. She and three colleagues – Lisa Lewis, Charlene Stewart and Natalie Cielanga – as well as two students, Dustin Howie and Leah Isherwood, tested the labs to make sure they were feasible.

Hunter has been sharing her green chemistry manuals with secondary schools and other institutions in the hopes that others will adopt it. “I talk about it wherever I can,” she says. “There’s always a lot more we could do, and that’s what keeps you researching and interested.”

While Hunter was implementing green chemistry practices in 2012, Weissfloch, a chemistry instructor at VIU since 2002, was granted an assisted VIU Faculty Association leave to research the same topic. When she returned, she developed a new course, Green Chemistry and Toxicology – the first of its kind, to her knowledge. She has also incorporated green chemistry into her organic chemistry labs and lectures.

“With the help of a few other faculty members and students, we made the labs substantially greener – chemical waste has been reduced by more than 65%!” Weissfloch explains.

Weissfloch’s green chemistry work has taken her to Thailand, Japan, the Philippines, Ottawa, Boston and London to share her findings. Next up, she is working with a science student, Christine Holt, to develop a green chemistry education workshop for secondary school chemistry teachers, which will use Hunter’s materials, and they’ve invited Hunter to help with the project. They hope to host a professional development workshop at VIU sometime this fall or next spring.

To view this press release online, visit VIU News.

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Jenn McGarrigle, Communications Officer, Vancouver Island University

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