Sustainability in Catalysis - Concept or Contradiction?

'Sustainability' might be regarded as one of the most important, but misinterpreted key concepts for future developments in various fields of our everyday life. The importance of sustainable development in science, for example, was recognized as early as 1987 when the Brundtland Commission presented their report in which a clear definition of sustainability (e. g., in education, economics, ecology, and science) is given. However, not every development that has claimed to be sustainable fulfills the criteria of the Brundtland definition in that their achievements are very short-sighted and will not have a positive influence on the standard of living for future generations. It is an aim of this account to summarize our approach to a concept that we call 'sustainable catalysis', i.e. the use of catalysts based upon abundant, inexpensive, metabolizable metals, such as iron.