RSC Sustainability Blog

RSC Sustainability is very excited to announce the launch of our latest themed collection, Industrial Perspectives, which is now open for submissions.

Chemical industries have a major role to play in the drive towards a sustainable future. The products manufactured by chemical industries touch all aspects of society, and many of the changes required to achieve sustainability will have a profound impact on how chemical companies operate. Such changes will include regulatory developments from regional and central governments, and new scientific innovations from the laboratories of the companies themselves.

This collection will serve as a platform to showcase the sustainability agenda of different companies operating in all sectors of chemical industry, from pharmaceuticals to petrochemicals, from consumer products to commodity chemicals, and provide these companies with an opportunity to elaborate on their Green and Sustainable Chemistry strategies and share the sustainability vision for their company and for the future of their industry.

The collection is guest Edited by Gary Walker (Lubrizol, UK), Paul Price (Unilever, UK) and Lei Wang (Westlake University, China), all of whom have extensive experience working in chemical industries.

This themed collection will accept Perspective articles. Perspective articles can be written through the lens of an individual or company on a topic of interest to the readership of the journal. Primary research papers are not within the scope of this collection, but we welcome primary research to the journal outside of this themed collection.

The submission deadline for this collection is Friday 15th August 2025.

If you have an Industrial Perspective you would like to share as part of this collection, please send a proposal to us at rscsus-rsc@rsc.org.

RSC Sustainability is very pleased to announce that our themed collection on Electrocatalysis for Energy Conversion Reactions is now open for submissions.

Defossilising and decarbonising the energy industry will be an important step in securing a sustainable future. Converting chemical energy to more usable forms is one approach that offers a sustainable alternative.

Electrocatalysis offers a method of overcoming the activation barriers of desired reactions and can make them economically viable at scales to make a difference to global climate change targets. In this way, it will be possible to achieve UN Sustainable Development Goals 7 (affordable and clean energy) and 13 (climate action).

Guest Edited by Zhenyu Sun (Beijing University of Chemical Technology, China), Justus Masa (Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion, Germany), and Kate Waldie (Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, USA), RSC Sustainability’s themed collection on Electrocatalysis for Energy Conversion Reactions aims to be a venue for work seeking to further these goals.

Topics for this collection include, but are not limited to:

• Hydrogen and oxygen reactions (i.e., hydrogen evolution reaction, hydrogen oxidation reaction, oxygen reduction reaction, oxygen evolution reaction)
• CO₂ reduction
• Nitrogen-based compound synthesis
• Biomass conversion
• Energy storage applications
• Sustainable design of electrocatalysts for energy conversion reactions

The collection welcomes contributions from industry and policy perspectives, as well as academic perspectives and can publish both review articles and primary research.

If you have work that fits the scope of this collection, feel free to submit now through our submissions portal. The submission deadline for this collection is Friday 14^th February 2025.

If you have any questions regarding this collection or the journal, please contact the editorial office at rscsus-rsc@rsc.org, where our team will be happy to help.

RSC Sustainability is very pleased to announce that our new themed collection, Defossilising Chemical Industries, is now open for submissions.

Chemical industries touch almost every aspect of society. They produce everything from fuels and polymers to everyday consumer products such as cosmetics and household cleaning products. Currently, many of these vital products are made using feedstocks derived from fossil sources which, in addition to being finite, also release large quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, accelerating climate change.

For chemical industries to be sustainable in the long term in accordance with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (particularly Goals 12 and 13, Responsible Consumption and Production and Climate Action, respectively), they must avoid using raw materials from fossil sources and find alternative feedstocks.

With the leadership of Guest Editors Agi Brandt-Talbot (Imperial College London, UK) and Alexander O’Malley (University of Bath, UK), RSC Sustainability’s themed collection on Defossilising Chemical Industries aims to be a venue for the latest research that could make this a reality.

Topics for this collection include, but are not limited to:

• Biomass as a feedstock
• CO₂ as a feedstock
• Plastic waste as a feedstock
• Methanol as a feedstock
• Use of renewable electricity in chemical industries
• Renewable oxidising and reducing agents
• Carbon capture

The collection welcomes contributions from industry and policy perspectives, as well as academic perspectives and can publish both review articles and primary research. Studies concerning Life Cycle Assessments and Techno-Economic Analyses are also welcome.

There are several approaches that have been proposed as stepping-stone or bridging technologies that, while not a permanent solution, do enable progress towards defossilisation. Indeed, the proponents of these argue that without such technologies it will be impossible to achieve defossilisation. On the other hand, opponents of these argue that they ultimately lead to the extension of the use of unsustainable technologies and hence are counterproductive. As we have stated in previous editorials, RSC Sustainability does not seek to be the gatekeeper for what is or is not sustainable chemistry, but rather provides a forum to facilitate such debates. However, we do expect contributors recognise these controversies within their manuscript and sustainability spotlight statement and to provide evidence to support the claims that that their technologies contribute to sustainability and the UN SDGs.

If you have work that fits the scope of this collection, feel free to submit now through our submissions portal. This collection has a submission deadline of Friday 31st January 2025.

If you have any questions regarding this collection or the journal, please contact the editorial office at rscsus-rsc@rsc.org, where our team will be happy to help.