Cultivating effective utility-regulator relationships around innovation: Lessons from four case studies in the U.S. municipal wastewater sector

While all regulatory processes involve interactions between regulators and those they regulate, innovative projects may require these parties to engage in new ways, heightening the importance of the relationships between them. We investigated four case studies to examine how regulatory relationships affect municipal wastewater utilities’ efforts to adopt new technologies. Through cross-case analysis, we identified five interconnected characteristics of regulatory relationships that appear to facilitate innovation, and whose absence could impede it.

See our Legal Planet blog post on the role of regulatory relationships in wastewater innovation.

See our Legal Planet blog post on a decade of unraveling the effects of regulation on water innovation.