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Fuelled by rising petroleum prices and climate change worries, "green" themes are at the forefront of many debates: reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, the Kyoto protocol, biofuels, alternative energies, biodegradable materials. The rise of the CleanTech movement is an indicator that an era will soon be upon us in which renewable resources and better environmental management try to go hand in hand with productivity and profitability. Nevertheless, public perception and the media, with or without justification, associate the chemical industry with pollution and environmental disasters. However, one old branch of chemistry, still very much alive, is worthy of the green science label: oleochemistry.