Unfortunately, there are costs to our planet in these endeavours. Nitrogen fertilisers such as ammonia and its derivatives are critical in food production, but ammonia manufacture requires approximately 1.2% of total global energy, currently sourced primarily from fossil fuels such as natural gas. Furthermore, nutrient runoff from fertilized farmland is wasteful, with as much as 40-70% of applied nitrogen lost to the environment, polluting water and air. The synthesis of medicines is a matter of life and death, but the production of pharmaceuticals can generate a mass of chemical waste 1-2 orders of magnitude greater than the desired medicinal agent. Solar panels and electronic devices are now ubiquitous in human life, yet both require plastic and metal components that are rarely sourced sustainably and difficult to recycle. Similarly, the synthetic materials we use in our many modes of transport and the built environment are often made using non-renewable resources and energy intensive manufacturing processes that generate hazardous emissions. Billions of tonnes of cement, for instance, are made each year, generating approximately 8-10% of global CO2 emissions and 11% of global mercury emissions. Likewise, iron and steel production contribute to approximately 7% of global CO2 emissions. Ultimately, an integrated framework for chemistry, engineering, and industrial design is needed to avoid the trap of manufacturing products unsustainably for a narrow, singular function. Such a framework should consider the full lifecycle of a product, ensuring it is made from renewable feedstocks using clean energy input, that waste is eliminated or minimised, that the product and any by-products are 'benign by design', and that the product can be repurposed, recycled or (bio)degraded into other useful or innocuous substances. The 12 principles of Green Chemistry and Green Engineering 2 were established to this end more than 20 years ago to ensure the manufacture, use, and lifecycle of valuable chemicals and materials are not at odds with safety and environmental stewardship. The principles of Green Chemistry and Engineering guide the sustainable production and use of chemicals and materials, but they do not prescribe a specific technological solution for each context.