NANOTECHNOLOGY & ENVIRONMENT

The Energy & Environmental Systems Institute has been instrumental in the formation of three research entities addressing issues concerning potential effects of emerging nanotechnologies on environmental systems:

International Consortium for Environment & Nanotechnology Research
Center for Biological & Environmental Nanotechnology
Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science & Technology    

Nanotechnologies hold great promise for creating new means of detecting pollutants, cleaning polluted waste streams, recovering materials before they become wastes, and expanding available resources. Like all emerging technologies with great promise, the nanotechnology and nanochemistry industries will present new challenges in ensuring that environmental risks are properly managed. 

EESI has played a pioneering role in identifying key research issues surrounding the implementation of environmental nanotechnologies and anticipating possible environmental impacts associated with nanomaterials. Indeed, the research agenda for examining environmental implications of nanotechnologies was publicly articulated for the first time at an international symposium organized by EESI in December 2001, with a follow-up conference in December 2005. 

Stakeholder Relationships Initiative 
A wide range of organizations generally known as non-governmental organizations (NGOs) play critical roles in the sustainable development process. This research initiative explores how NGOs interact with other stakeholders - business, regulatory institutions, the community  - when new technologies with potential impact on sustainable development appear. The development of Nanotechnology is likely to bring about a revolution that could transform every aspect of work and life in fields of activity as varied as biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, information and energy storage, water treatment or air pollution. It constitutes such a breakthrough from all known technology that it is difficult to even assess its impact on sustainability, and this creates public concern. Based on the study of public reaction to the introduction on the market of recent new technological discoveries, the Stakeholder Relationships program seeks to identify how and why behavior models vary with different markets and different cultures when a new technology becomes available.