Metrics for sustainable chemistry

The accomplishment of the EU's Green Deal commitments is becoming more challenging - due to the multitude of interconnected worldwide problems we are currently facing, such as climate change, energy supply and geopolitical crises, and increasing inflation. Notably, climate change-related environmental and socio-economic impacts are more and more evident and are also one of the reasons for the impressively growing migration flows from the poorest countries (see e.g. Refs. [1,2]). Against this background, boosting innovative and sustainable consumption and production models represents a priority that particularly affects the chemical sector, which is responsible for about one-third of the total energy consumption - and associated CO2 emissions - in the industrial sector [3]. Indeed, we are surrounded by chemical products and Europe is the second-largest chemicals producer in the world after China [4].