Could you introduce Green Chemistry?

Founded in 2012, Green Chemistry was born at a time when the mining industry was booming and had limited professionals with expertise in chemistry and reagents, while Mongolia was importing approximately US$350 million worth of chemicals every year. I established Green Chemistry to respond to this unmet demand. Today, Green Chemistry imports three categories of chemicals: Technical grade (for mining); laboratory grade (for testing and R&D); and analytical grade (used in very specific research). As we observed the demand for laboratory equipment growing alongside that for chemicals, we also began importing all lab supplies, from pipets to analytical instruments like spectrometers.

Could you elaborate on your current business and the role Green Chemistry plays in the Mongolian mining space?

Green Chemistry has two business lines, one is chemicals, and the other is lab equipment. Finally, our third focus is on educating the market spreading general information about everything chemical related to increase the overall knowledge in the Mongolian chemical market. We provide training, run workshops, and organize many large events to bring together industry professionals and exchange best practices on a yearly basis.

Green Chemistry counts an annual revenue of US$12 million. Out of the US$350 million chemicals market value in Mongolia, about US$150 million is explosives; another US$100 million is household chemicals; and the last US$100 million is chemicals used in mining and laboratories, which is the market we serve. Green Chemistry strives to be a dominant player within this space, and we are proud to have been growing our sales by 30% year-on-year.

We represent about 70 different world-renowned brands, such as Merck, Sigma Aldrich, Carl Roth for analytical-grade chemicals, as well as multiple Russian and Chinese principals for technical chemicals used in mining; as higher-volume chemicals, it makes sense these mining chemicals are imported from nearby locations.

How is Green Chemistry raising awareness of the concept of green chemistry, as its name implies?

The general misconception that most of the Mongolian population shares is that chemistry is dangerous and even poisonous. In the 2010s, the concept of green chemistry started taking root globally, so we picked up on it, driven by a vision to change the mentality in Mongolia and show the public that chemistry can be indeed green, ecofriendly, and safe. ‘Safe chemistry is our future’ became our motto, and we therefore reflected it in the name of the company.

We continue to remain a pioneer in the chemistry field, bringing the industry together through regular events and creating digital communities via our social platforms. For example, since 2013, we have organized ‘Environmental safety of chemicals’ training online, allowing over 1,000 participants to complete a certified training over the course of two-days per year. Four ministries, fifteen government agencies, two universities, four NGOs, and four private companies participated in this year’s event as lecturers.

We usually run about 10 different large events every year for our Mongolian chemical market. For example, our ‘Green Chemistry-2023 state competition for theoretical and practical works in the field of chemistry’ event, which is the first of its kind in Mongolia and 100% privately funded, gathers attendees from many different domains and it is available to anyone interested in chemistry. Besides, Green Chemistry is very active on social media, especially Facebook, and we are also working on our YouTube channel.

How is Green Chemistry positioned for 2024?

Every year, we note an increase in the total base, and, most importantly, we have been able to also take a larger share of the market, growing our position consistently. Our goal as a business is to continue on this trend, growing at no less than 30% (yearly revenue) in 2024 and beyond. To do so, we continue to professionalize our business, so that, when a client approaches us for a product, each one of our employees can provide a full professional service of consulting, training, warehousing, etc. I see Green Chemistry becoming a one-stop-shop solution for everything chemicals-related.

The second main objective for 2024 is to launch our new YouTube channel, which will feature exclusive interviews with experts in different fields on critical aspects like safety, for anyone to access. The website is also being updated to support multi-media, interactive content like blogs, where we can engage the broader chemicals community on issues that matter to all.