A new educational sustainability initiative was implemented in September 2024 in one of the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC) laboratories: the redesign of the laboratory practices following the Green Chemistry (GC) principles.

The objectives of the project were to contribute to include sustainability in the curricula of higher education students, to decrease the amount of waste in the laboratory, to eliminate hazardous wastes from the laboratories and to save money.

The project was implemented, as a first stage, in one of the laboratories of the Escola Superior d’Enginyeries Industrial, Aeronàutica I Audiovisual, in the Chemistry course of the first grade.

There are 12 principles of Green Chemistry:
1. Prevention:
2. Atom Economy.
3 Less Hazardous Chemical Syntheses.
4. Designing Safer Chemicals.
5. Safer Solvents and Auxiliaries.
6. Design for Energy Efficiency.
7. Use of Renewable Feedstocks.
8. Reduce Derivatives.
9. Catalytic reagents.
10. Design for Degradation.
11. Real-time analysis for Pollution Prevention.
12. Inherently Safer Chemistry for Accident Prevention.

The methodology developed included the revision of every experimental process and pointing where each of the 12 GC principles could be applied. Afterward, the changes needed to apply the principles were proposed. The practices were tested at the laboratory, and then the changes were approved or denied. If a practice violated many of the principles, then it was changed to a completely new one. Afterward, the student's guide was changed to include the new experimental processes, and at the end of each chapter, a section with the GC principles applied and the changes done to the practice was included. A diagnosis of the laboratory was made regarding the number of reagents used, the waste produced, and the money devoted to buy the reagents and to manage the waste.

The results show a decrease in tap water use (40,000 L/year), a decrease in distilled water use (20%), the complete removal of some toxic reagents (chloroform, ammonia, sulfuric acid, nickel sulfate) and the decrease of other reagents (up to 80%). The global amount of waste was reduced by 82%, as several changes included reuse of waste. All the changes contribute to reducing the laboratory budget by 11%. Students now read the changes done to the practice and the GC principles applied to it before going to the laboratory. In the lab there is a poster showing the results of the project.

The success of this project has motivated UPC competent authorities to promote the inclusion of GC principles in other laboratories and in other schools.

Keywords: Sustainability, Green Chemistry, Scientific Experimentation, University, Circular Economy.