Supporting decision-making for sustainable nanotechnology

Ineke Malsch,Antonio Marcomini,Danail Hristozov,Vrishali Subramanian,Elena Semenzin

doi:10.1007/s10669-015-9539-4

Ineke Malsch, Antonio Marcomini + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10669-015-9539-4

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Abstract

Understanding how stakeholders manage risks associated with nanomaterials is a key input to the design of strategies and tools to achieve safe and sustainable nanomanufacturing. The paper presents some results of a study aiming firstly to inform the development of a software decision support tool. Further, we seek also to understand existing tools used by stakeholders as a source of capabilities and potential adaptation into decision support framework and tools. Central research questions of this study are: How is collective decision-making on risk management and sustainable nanomaterials organised? Which aspects are taken into account in this collective decision-making? And what role can a decision support tool play in such decision-making? The paper analyses 13 responses to a questionnaire survey held among participants in a meeting in October 2013 and a series of 27 semi-structured telephone interviews conducted from January until April 2014 with decision-makers from mainly European industry and regulators involved in risk management and sustainable manufacturing of nanomaterials. Findings from the study on the social organisation of collective decision-making, aspects taken into account in decisions and potential role of decision support tools are presented.

Highlights

The diverse applications of engineered nanomaterials (ENM) and nanoproducts have the potential to have important economic, environmental and societal benefits
Central research questions of this study are: How is collective decision-making on risk management and sustainable nanomaterials organised? Which aspects are taken into account in this collective decision-making? And what role can a decision support tool play in such decision-making? The paper analyses 13 responses to a questionnaire survey held among participants in a meeting in October 2013 and a series of 27 semistructured telephone interviews conducted from January until April 2014 with decision-makers from mainly European industry and regulators involved in risk management and sustainable manufacturing of nanomaterials
3.1 Organising collective decision-making on risk management and sustainable nanomaterials

Summary

Introduction

The diverse applications of engineered nanomaterials (ENM) and nanoproducts have the potential to have important economic, environmental and societal benefits. The reaping of these benefits is contingent upon thorough assessment of its risks and impacts. ‘‘Sustainable nanotechnology’’ has been advanced as a concept that can facilitate incremental nano-innovation even amidst significant data gaps (Subramanian et al 2014a). An initial framing of ‘‘sustainable nanotechnology’’ can be extracted from emerging literature on safety and sustainability of nanomanufacturing, which advocates the integration of life cycle thinking, green nanotechnology, environmental and human health risk assessment analysis and management (Bergeson 2013; Dhingra et al 2010; Mulvihill et al 2011; Schulte et al 2013). A sustainable nanotechnology framework based on decision analytic techniques can facilitate decision-making on nanomanufacturing in the following ways: (a) risk and impacts of various nano-enabled products can be compared, (b) risk management can be based on an integrated view of various risks and impacts and the trade-offs between them, (c) risks and impacts of nanomanufacturing

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