Anticipatory life-cycle assessment for responsible research and innovation

Abstract

The goal of guiding innovation toward beneficial social and environmental outcomes – referred to in the growing literature as responsible research and innovation (RRI) – is intuitively worthwhile but lacks practicable tools for implementation. One potentially useful tool is life-cycle assessment (LCA), which is a comprehensive framework used to evaluate the environmental impacts of products, processes, and technologies. However, LCA ineffectively promotes RRI for at least two reasons: (1) Codified approaches to LCA are largely retrospective, relying heavily on data collected from mature industries with existing supply chains and (2) LCA underemphasizes the importance of stakeholder engagement to inform critical modeling decisions which diminishes the social credibility and relevance of results. LCA researchers have made piecemeal advances that address these shortcomings, yet there is no consensus regarding how to advance LCA to support RRI of emerging technologies. This paper advocates for development of anticipatory LCA as non-predictive and inclusive of uncertainty, which can be used to explore both reasonable and extreme-case scenarios of future environmental burdens associated with an emerging technology. By identifying the most relevant uncertainties and engaging research and development decision-makers, such anticipatory methods can generate alternative research agenda and provide a practicable tool to promote environmental RRI.

Keywords:

• anticipation
• technology assessment
• foresight
• knowledge integration

Acknowledgements

All opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF or DOE.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grants #1140190 and #1144616; Center for Nanotechnology in Society (CNS) at ASU under Grants #0531194 & #0937591; and the NSF and Department of Energy (DOE) Quantum Energy and Sustainable Solar Technologies (QESST) Engineering Research Center at ASU under Grant #1041895.

Notes on contributors

Ben A. Wender's is a Ph.D. student in Sustainable Engineering at Arizona State University. He works with an interdisciplinary network of collaborators across academia, industry, and government agencies to develop life cycle assessment methods suitable for emerging technologies.

Rider W. Foley is a post-doctoral scholar at the Center for Nanotechnology in Society at Arizona State University, where he studies innovation systems through the lens of sustainability science. He has worked on diverse projects that elucidate broader social and environmental impacts of emerging technologies.

Troy A. Hottle is a Ph.D. student in Sustainable Engineering at Arizona State University. He couples life cycle assessment with behavioral science methods to explore the environmental impacts of waste treatment for biopolymers.

Jathan Sadowski is a Ph.D. student in the Human and Social Dimensions of Science and Technology at Arizona State University. His research focuses on the societal implications of emerging information and communication technologies.

Valentina Prado-Lopez is a Ph.D. candidate in Sustainable Engineering at Arizona State University. Her research integrates multi-criteria decision analysis tools with existing life cycle assessment methods to better support decision-makers faced with environmental trade-offs.

Daniel A. Eisenberg is a Ph.D. student in Sustainable Engineering at Arizona State University. Previously, Eisenberg has worked in risk, life cycle, and decision analysis of emerging technologies. His current work focuses on applying social and engineering models to assess the resilience of critical infrastructure systems and to create metrics for operations decisions.

Lise Laurin founded EarthShift LLC in 2000 to help support industry and government decision-makers in their endeavor to reduce environmental impacts. Her work focuses on life cycle assessment and sustainability return on investment frameworks that promote awareness of broader impacts.

Thomas P. Seager is an Associate Professor of Civil, Environmental, and Sustainable Engineering at Arizona State University, where he directs an interdisciplinary group of graduate researchers in projects in engineering education, sustainability ethics, responsible innovation, and life cycle assessment.