Maybe its something in the water, maybe its something in the beer, or maybe a lack of it?
While the nanotechnology community seems to be locked in a pitched battle with the environmental movement over in the US, it is a common site in Europe to see Greenpeace, ETC, the European NanoBusiness Association and a range of industries and academics getting on just fine. We may have our differences, but the concerns of the general public and environmental movements are often genuine, and whether or not they are based on hard science, both communities can learn a lot.
The knee jerk reaction of the US community, labelling environmentalists as Marxists or industrial terrorists seems to be coming back to haunt the business community, with the refusal of several green groups to participate in the newly created International Council on Nanotechnology.
What it does show, and ICON should have realised this by studying the European reaction to GMOs, is to involve non governmental organisations such as the environmental movement from the very beginning. Inviting them to the party after soliciting donations from the industrial players who have the most to lose will make them rightly suspicious.