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Urine diversion systems, which include waterless urinals and urine-diverting flush toilets, offer opportunities to conserve water, recover nutrients, promote circular economies, and improve sustainability. While technical development of these systems is critical, understanding stakeholder perceptions is equally important for their successful innovation, implementation, and adoption. This study conducts an exploratory analysis of stakeholder perceptions at U.S. academic institutions regarding how urine diversion technologies fit within the broader array of water conservation technologies and factors that influence decision-making related to urine diversion in buildings. We surveyed 65 stakeholders, including executive leaders, administrators, facilities managers, building managers, and sustainability professionals—key groups responsible for the adoption and maintenance of such systems but underrepresented in prior research. Participants reported a high level of awareness of water conservation technologies and varying degrees of implementation. Across all technologies, low-flush fixtures had the highest rate of implementation and waterless urinals had the highest rate of implementation and subsequent removal due to maintenance and infrastructure challenges. Participants also indicated that compliance with plumbing codes was the most critical factor when considering the implementation of urine diversion systems, followed by efficacy and cost-savings, and water conservation and nutrient recovery were among the least important factors. Future studies should focus on aligning urine diversion systems with building codes and regulations, mitigating clogging and odors to improve acceptance and adoption, and estimating costs and benefits when deciding on their implementation. 

Abstract Stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) and gene drive organisms (GDOs) have been proposed as technological responses to complex entrenched environmental challenges. They also share several characteristics of emerging risks, including extensive uncertainties, systemic interdependencies, and risk profiles intertwined with societal contexts. This Perspective conducts a comparative analysis of the two technologies, and identifies ways in which their research and policy communities may learn from each other to inform future risk governance strategies. We find that SAI and GDOs share common features of aiming to improve or restore a public good, are characterized by numerous potential ecological, societal, and ethical risks associated with deep uncertainty, and are challenged by how best to coordinate behavior of different actors. Meanwhile, SAI and GDOs differ in their temporal and spatial mode of deployment, spread, degree and type of reversibility, and potential for environmental monitoring. Based on this analysis, we find the field of SAI may learn from GDOs by enhancing its international collaborations for governance and oversight, while the field of GDOs may learn from SAI by investing in research focused on economics and decision-modeling. Additionally, given the relatively early development stages of SAI and GDOs, there may be ample opportunities to learn from risk governance efforts of other emerging technologies, including the need for improved monitoring and incorporating aspects of responsible innovation in research and any deployment. 

Abstract Urine diversion (UD) is a system-of-systems that involves source separation of waste to maximize recovery of valuable nutrients, including phosphorus. Recent research shows how UD systems offer valuable ecological benefits and can aid in water conservation efforts, and public perception studies suggest that UD systems are generally viewed positively by end-users and the general public. Nevertheless, adoption and implementation of this promising sustainability solution remains limited in many countries, including the United States (U.S.). In this perspective, we argue that in order to scale up adoption in the U.S., UD researchers and innovators must do more to address regulatory barriers. We draw on insights from political science research on ‘regulatory regimes’ to introduce the array of regulations that apply to UD systems, with a focus on commercial and institutional buildings. We examine regulatory regimes all along the UD system-of-systems, beginning at the point of collection and ending at the point of beneficial reuse. We then propose next steps to address current regulatory challenges that impact adoption, with an emphasis on the importance of stakeholder coordination. Throughout, we argue that law and regulation plays a critical role in shaping adoption of UD technologies because: (1) different regulatory regimes will be important at different points in the system-of-systems, (2) there may be multiple regulatory regimes that apply to a single subsystem, and (3) it is important to consider that legal and regulatory definitions of a technology may not match scientific understanding. 

Phosphorus (P) is a finite resource and necessary nutrient for agriculture. Urine contains a higher concentration of P than domestic wastewater, which can be recovered by source separation and treatment (hereafter urine diversion). Commercial and institutional (CI) buildings are a logical location for urine diversion since restrooms account for a substantial fraction of water use and wastewater generation. This study estimated the potential for P recovery from human urine and water savings from reduced flushing in CI buildings, and proposed an approach to identify building types and community layouts that are amenable to implementing urine diversion. The results showed that urine diversion is most advantageous in CI buildings with either high daily occupancy counts or times, such as hospitals, schools, office buildings, and airports. Per occupant P recovery benchmarks were estimated to be between 0.04–0.68 g/cap·d. Per building P recovery rates were estimated to be between 0.002–5.1 kg/d, and per building water savings were estimated to be between 3 and 23 % by volume. Recovered P in the form of phosphate fertilizer and potable water savings could accrue profits and cost reductions that could offset the capital costs of new urine diversion systems within 5 y of operation. Finally, urine diversion systems can be implemented at different levels of decentralization based on community layout and organizational structure, which will require socioeconomic and policy acceptance for wider adoption. 

This paper evaluates the U.S. regulatory review of three emerging biotechnology products according to parameters, practices, and endpoints of assessments that are important to stakeholders and publics. First, we present a summary of the literature on variables that are important to non-expert publics in governing biotech products, including ethical, social, policy process, and risk and benefit parameters. Second, we draw from our USDA-funded project results that surveyed stakeholders with subject matter expertise about their attitudes towards important risk, benefit, sustainability, and societal impact parameters for assessing novel agrifood technologies, including biotech. Third, we evaluate the regulatory assessments of three food and agricultural biotechnology case studies that have been reviewed under U.S. regulatory agencies and laws of the Coordinated Framework for the Regulation of Biotechnology, including gene-edited soybeans, beef cattle, and mustard greens. Evaluation of the regulatory review process was based on parameters identified in steps 1 and 2 which were deemed important to both publics and stakeholders. Based on this review, we then propose several policy options for U.S. federal agencies to strengthen their oversight processes to better align with a broader range of parameters to support sustainable agrifood products that rely on novel technologies. These policy options include 1) those that would not require new institutions or legal foundations (such as conducting Environmental Impact Statements and/or requiring a minimal level of safety data), 2) those that would require a novel institutional or cross-institutional framework (such as developing a publicly-available website and/or performing holistic sustainability assessments), and 3) those that would require the agencies to have additional legal authorities (such as requiring agencies to review biotech products according to a minimal set of health, environmental, and socio-economic parameters). Overall, the results of this analysis will be important for guiding policy practice and formulation in the regulatory assessment of emerging biotechnology products that challenge existing legal and institutional frameworks. 

Phosphorus (P) is essential for life on Earth, yet its current management is unsustainable. Stakeholder engagement is urgently needed to help ensure that scientific and technical solutions to improve P sustainability meet the needs of diverse groups, yet there are comparatively few studies that provide insights into stakeholder views, perceptions, or concerns. In this opinion, we use a mass flow diagram of P as a boundary object to understand the complex challenges of sustainable P management. In particular, we map US stakeholder groups onto the mass flow diagram to incorporate human factors into mass flows at a national scale. Our approach is grounded in well-established social–scientific methodologies, such as stakeholder mapping and social network analysis, but is applied in a novel way that can be generalized to other mass flows and geographic areas. We then suggest ways that researchers can use the annotated flow diagram to identify both knowledge gaps and research gaps in stakeholder engagement, especially in interdisciplinary or convergence research contexts.