Published by Pan Stanford Publishing Pte. Ltd. Penthouse Level, Suntec Tower 3 8 Temasek Boulevard Singapore W

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6 Published by Pan Stanford Publishing Pte. Ltd. Penthouse Level, Suntec Tower 3 8 Temasek Boulevard Singapore editorial@panstanford.com Web: British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Emerging Technologies: Socio-Behavioral Life Cycle Approaches Copyright 2013 by Pan Stanford Publishing Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission from the publisher. For photocopying of material in this volume, please pay a copying fee through the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. In this case permission to photocopy is not required from the publisher. ISBN (Hardcover) ISBN (ebook) Printed in the USA

7 The editors would like to dedicate this book to all who work together to develop and manage sustainable socio-technical-natural systems that improve global quality of life.

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9 Contents Preface xiii Introduction 1 1. Using Nanotechnology to Filter Water: A Hypothetical Case Study 5 Michael E. Gorman, Nora F. Savage, and Anita Street 2. Nanotechnology for Human Health 11 Michael E. Gorman, Nora F. Savage, and Anita Street 3. Assessing Emerging Technology Systems: Why LCA Fails 17 Braden R. Allenby Introduction 17 Background: LCA Methods and Complex Systems 19 Technology Systems: The Railroad Example 23 Levels of Technology Systems 31 Conclusion Technology Mandates and Socio-Behavioral Life Cycle Assessment 41 Gary E. Marchant Introduction 41 Technology Mandates as a Regulatory Tool 43 Example 1: California s Electric Vehicle Mandate 44 Example 2: Digital TV Mandate 55 Example 3: CFL Bulb Mandate 61 Conclusion Issues in Life Cycle Risk Assessment: The Way Ahead 77 Gurumurthy Ramachandran Introduction 77 Traditional Risk Assessment 80

10 viii Contents Challenges and Opportunities Presented by Novel Technologies 82 Legal Limitations 82 Toxicity 84 Conservatism in toxicity testing: The costs 84 Limitations of current in vitro methods in nanoparticle risk assessment 86 Omics and systems biology 87 Exposure Assessment 89 The choice of an appropriate exposure metric 89 Expert and professional judgment in exposure assessment 91 Heuristics and biases in judgment 99 Extreme uncertainty in risk assessment models 103 Fat tail distributions 104 Risk management using control bands 106 Robust versus optimal decisionmaking for risk management 107 Conclusions Organizational Capability Life Cycles for Responsible Innovation 117 Paul Ellwood, Krsto Pandza, and Erik Fisher Introduction 117 Emerging Technologies and Responsible Innovation 119 Organizational Capabilities for Innovation 123 Evolution of an Organizational Capability for Responsible Innovation 127 Process Theories of Change within Organizations 130 Final Remarks Socialis Commodis and Life Cycle Analysis: A Critical Examination of Uncertainty 139 David M. Berube Models 141 Analysis with Uncertainty 141

11 Contents ix Analysis without Societal Dimensions 148 Economy 150 Privacy 150 Justice 151 Defense 151 Dehumanization 151 Analysis with Methodological Creativity 152 Conclusion Who Let the Social Scientists into the Lab? 165 Eleonore Pauwels Introduction: Moving Away from 20th Century LCA 165 State of the Art: Crossing the Line In and Out the Laboratory 168 Trading Zone, Interactional Expertise, and Cross-Field Collaborations 168 Epistemic Cultures and Negative Knowledge 169 Case Study: Probing the Concept of Trading Zone within Synthetic Biology 171 A Glance at Our Biotechnical Futures 172 Engineering Life or Engineering for Better Life? 175 The Two Cultures Gap Revisited with Synthetic Biology 177 Experimental Trading Zone around a Biological Chassis 180 Setting the scene of this trading zone 180 Boundary object 180 Moral imagination 182 Interactional expertise 184 Critical evaluation of the functioning of this trading zone 186 Conclusion What Are the Factors Affecting Anthropogenic Phosphorous Loss? A Case Study of Chaohu Watershed in Central China 199 Zengwei Yuan, Huijun Wu, and Jun Bi Introduction 199 Methodologies 201

12 x Contents Study Area 201 Analytical Framework 202 Data Collection 204 Results and Discussions 204 Policy and Regulations 205 Business Implication 206 Individual Implication 207 Methodological Limitations 210 Conclusions Life Cycle Assessment and the U.S. Policy-Making Context 217 Steven A. Cohen Introduction 217 LCA as a Policy-Making Tool 219 The Policy-Making Context in the United States: Incrementalism 225 Non-Incremental Leaps in Policy 227 Place-Based Environment Politics: The Importance of Scale 230 The Role of Uncertainty in U.S. Environmental Policy-Making 233 Case Study: Using U.S. Climate Change Politics to Explain the Limits of LCA 238 Conclusion Unexpected Appropriations of Technology and Life Cycle Analysis: Reframing Cradle-to-Grave Approaches 251 Christopher Cummings, Jordan Frith, and David Berube Introduction 251 Industry Environment Interactions 252 Life Cycle Analysis 254 Nano Silver 256 Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) Surface-Friendly Urban Mining 273 Eric Lee Sander, Charles William Edghill, and Gary Roy Sander Introduction 273 The Life Cycle 276

13 Contents xi Traditional Urban Mining 278 The Assembly Line 279 The Disassembly Line: Making Reclamation/Recycling Productive 281 Automotive Urban Mining/Disassembly in America 284 What Are the Materials that Are Reclaimed? 288 Urban Mining: Beyond the Automobile 290 Design for Reclamation/Recycling 291 Importance of Recycling to Human Civilization 294 Conclusion 302 Dedication 305 Coda 305 Conclusions and Suggestions for Future Work 309 Index 315

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15 Contents xiii Preface Historically speaking, conventional approaches to life cycle analysis (LCA) methodologies have been ostensibly concerned with public health and environmental impacts from materials, consumer products, processes or activities (of the anthropogenic kind.). The last three decades have brought a litany of continuous developmental improvements within the practice. This is evidenced by a growing interest globally as well as an intensity of awareness that is leading practitioners and researchers to apply LCA, or social life cycle analysis (SLCA), in heretofore very unusual and creative ways. Guinée et al. in 2011 in their research paper Life Cycle Assessment: Past, Present, and Future [Environ. Sci. Technol., 2011, 45(1), 90 96] observed that on the international front, LCA is booming in a multitude of ways that is leading us to the building of a deeper and broader discipline. Some of these more creative uses include studies building codes and materials, military systems, waste incineration and tourism. The creation of international standards and the 2009 work of the European Commission (among many others) that established a life cycle sustainability analysis is a testament and acknowledgement of the legitimacy and credibility the field continues to garner. As researchers, decision makers, and practitioners, who have each long been involved in LCA on different fronts, we were each very keen to examine the proposition of a more adaptive framework. One that, in part, unapologetically asks the questions of the producers of an emerging technology or material: who will use it; how will it be used; and who will be the primary beneficiaries? The result is a collaboration of the willing that includes illuminating submissions from researchers from multiple areas of science and social science including the fields of molecular toxicology, anthropology, behavioral and environmental economics, political economy, ethics, public engagement, technology assessment, governance, etc. The underlying premise of the book is that a more effective approach towards life cycle considerations for emerging materials and technologies should include a wider range of perspectives and disciplines. Ultimately, we hope to inspire new areas of research and deeper dives into existing areas that will shed new light.

16 xiv Preface Given the broadening application of SLCA, we have included critical analyses on the assessment of emerging technology, responsible innovation and reframing cradle-to-grave approaches for example. In addition, we have included chapters on the effectiveness, as well as the acceptance or adoption of a technology, the dependencies on the prevalent context, materials, supply chain, governance structures, and societal norms or cultural behaviors. We propose that this framework could be done in three stages with examples from the nanosciences. The book includes critical discussions about trading zones, ethics, behavioral nanotechnology, governance, risk, green design, and urban mining as potential fodder to develop tools for practitioners and decision makers. As the editors, we have attempted to assemble a volume comprising research and thought pieces of some of today s leading experts on the subject. It is the hope of the editors and contributors that this book will meaningfully contribute to an international dialogue suggesting that a need still exists to further refine and develop holistic approaches that incorporate societal and behavioral dimensions at the heart of the human-environment/technology interface. The research presented here serves as a proverbial call to arms that will hopefully inspire, provoke and encourage discussion and research. In the first two chapters, we have also created two scenarios to tie together overarching themes that are woven throughout the volume. Each is broken into two parts, the first reflecting the design phase of the lifecycle and the second reflecting what happens when the innovation is introduced into the socio-technical system. These vignettes are placed right after the introduction to stimulate imagination about the social-behavioral-ethical aspects of LCA. The editors and authors sincerely look forward to more holistic assessments of emerging materials and the resultant improved protection of public health and the environment. The approaches presented in this volume serve merely as examples; further exploration, additional ideas, and adaptions of these ideas are welcome. As the Noble Prize winning physicist Werner Heisenberg once said, The existing scientific concepts cover always only a very limited part of reality, and the other part that has not yet been understood is infinite. These words never rang so true. Nora Savage, Michael Gorman, and Anita Street Spring 2013

17 Introduction As technology and innovation continue to advance, and as novel materials and devices are developed to improve the quality of life, a better and more thorough assessment of the impacts will be necessary. Life cycle analysis should not only raise key questions about where and when during the product life cycle material and energy impacts could arise but also attempt to ascertain whose quality of life the product might improve or reduce, and why. In the era of increasing populations, decreasing resources, and concentration of wealth in the hands of a decreasing subset of the population, society can no longer afford to ignore or dismiss such questions. One approach for obtaining answers to these questions and for attaining more accurate assessments of potential impacts is to incorporate behavior, ethics, and philosophy along with other components of social science into life cycle analyses of emerging technologies and products. The figure below, which shows a traditional life cycle analysis, illustrates this point by placing material and energy flows at the top of the triangle. Behavioral and social components and also emerging technological alternatives occupy the base of the triangle. The incorporation of these additional factors cannot be simply off-hand or by-the-way. Careful consideration of the product or technology along the life cycle and the exploration of cultural mores and ethics surrounding various activities are required. Dialogue among the different concerned parties is critical. Communication among them as key parties to the activity or users of the product rather than lectures is important. Phrases such as If only the public understood the technology they would embrace it, can be appropriately countered with If only the technologists understood the cultural ramifications of the product, they would

18 2 Introduction think again. Potential misuse of products, particularly by children, should be considered and altered or new uses of products should be assessed especially where targeted marketing and manufacturing practices promote these uses. The circles with arrows denote life cycle analyses. The smaller circle around material and energy flows is the usual life cycle analysis done in industrial ecology. The larger circle accompanying the triangle denotes the expanded space explored by this book, a reminder that more traditional forms of life cycle analysis externalize important behavioral and social components, including the kinds of innovations that change the technological options. The need to incorporate the social sciences along with the physical sciences into any approach toward understanding and assessing potential impacts of emerging materials for life cycle analysis is critical. Social scientists, ethicists and policy-makers raise questions like: How will users transform the technology? How will a technology interact with other emerging technologies? How can governance systems anticipate and manage sociotechnical innovations?

19 Introduction 3 Will the new technology result in improvements in the overall global quality of life or merely improvements in the quality of life for a relatively few? Will greater disparities occur between the very rich and the very poor? Increasing this divide will generate social unrest and trigger actions which can adversely impact public health and the environment. This book offers several options for adopting this more proactive integrated assessment. In addition, two fictional vignettes serve as the backdrop for the importance of these types of approaches.

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