The technologies, processes and products we develop have impacts on the environment and our health. Some impacts are intended, and some are not. The policies adopted to regulate the risks of such developments may themselves pose unintended consequences. We can point to examples of product and policy advances intended to deliver benefits by minimizing one target risk, only to uncover later that unanticipated consequences created new risks. These complexities pose challenges for both private innovation and public oversight. They also present opportunities to improve understanding and decision-making. An important step in enabling such improvements is to understand the interconnected physical, economic, legal and cultural factors along the lifecycle of a set of decisions related to characterizing and managing risks.