scholarly journals Social Life Cycle Assessments: A Review on Past Development, Advances and Methodological Challenges

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (18) ◽  
pp. 10286
Author(s):  
Louisa Pollok ◽  
Sebastian Spierling ◽  
Hans-Josef Endres ◽  
Ulrike Grote

Society’s interest in social impacts of products, services and organizational behaviors is rapidly growing. While life cycle assessments to evaluate environmental stressors have generally been well established in many industries, approaches to evaluate social impacts such as Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) lack methodological consistency and standardization. The aim of this paper is to identify past developments and methodological barriers of S-LCA and to summarize how the automotive industry contributed to the advancement or application of this method. Therefore, a qualitative content analysis of 111 studies published between 2015 and 2020 is used to gather information on past scientific and political milestones, methodological barriers impeding S-LCA and the participation of the automotive sector. The review shows that a broad range of sectors such as the automotive industry contributed to the testing and advancement of S-LCA in the past but that S-LCA remains a young and immature method. Large-scale application is impeded by major barriers such as the variety of impact categories and sub-categories, the lacking integration of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), issues of linking LCA structures to social phenomena or the difficult tracking of social impact pathways. Further research on standardization possibilities, the connection to political social targets and the testing of methods is necessary to overcome current barriers and increase the applicability and interpretability results.

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 3661 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seungjun Roh ◽  
Sungho Tae ◽  
Rakhyun Kim ◽  
Daniela Martínez

As sustainable development has emerged as a priority on the international agenda, increasing emphasis has been placed on “Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA),” wherein environmental, economic, and social performance are comprehensively integrated. This study, as part of an LCSA approach, uses Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) to analyze the worker category social impact for concrete plants in South Korea. For the analysis, three types of concrete plant with different operating systems were selected and evaluated: Direct operation, operated by dedicated concrete manufacturers, and operated by cement suppliers. Eleven major social topics, which were mentioned in the international standards and international institutes, were selected as the subjects of evaluation; the social impacts were evaluated by applying the evaluative criteria for social topics presented in the Handbook for Product Social Life Cycle Assessment of PRé Sustainability. We determined that the highest social impact was found in concrete plants operated by cement suppliers (0.77), followed by plants operated by dedicated concrete manufacturers (0.50), and finally by plants with direct operations (0.09). These results can be applied by concrete plants to improve worker category areas in which they are lacking and by future researchers to evaluate the sustainable development of a variety of industries.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 3289 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zaman Sajid ◽  
Nicholas Lynch

Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) is a rapidly evolving social impact assessment tool that allows users to identify the social impacts of products along with their life cycles. In recent years, S-LCA methodologies have been increasingly applied to energy systems and resources with notable success yet with limited reliability and even less flexibility or geographic specificity. In response, this study develops a novel assessment tool, named the GreenZee model, to reflect the social impacts of products and their sustainability using local currency units. The model is developed through evaluating both qualitative and quantitative inputs that capture the perceived monetary value of social impacts. To demonstrate the operationalization of the model, we explore a hypothetical case study of the biodiesel industry in Newfoundland and Labrador (NL), Canada. Results indicate that biodiesel production in NL would have positive socio-cultural impacts, high cultural values, and would create employment opportunities for locals. Overall, the GreenZee model provides users with a relatively simple approach to translate a variety of qualitative and quantitative social impact inputs (as importance levels) into meaningful and understandable financial outputs (as strength levels). We argue that building and testing models such as the GreenZee are crucial to supporting more flexible approaches to life cycle assessments that need to address increasingly complex social categories, cultural values, and geographic specificity.


2019 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amir Hamzah Sharaai ◽  
Khairul Izzudin Muhammad ◽  
Yeoh Geok Wah

Commercial convention of tea production and plantation at the largest scale in this country has shown an escalation year by year, together with the high demand for tea products in the Malaysian market. This may have a direct social impact throughout the life cycle of tea production. Thus, this research sought to identify the social impacts from the overall process of tea production. This study used the Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) involving descriptive analysis by assessing the social impacts associated with the stakeholders of tea production using three sets of questionnaires. The studies were conducted at one of the highest tea production companies in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia. The findings of the stakeholders showed a good level of satisfaction because there was no significant negative effect. Overall, the social aspects of the tea production met the required criteria in terms of social significance. However, there were some social aspects that can be improved by the factory in the future such as health and safety, discrimination, job opportunity and local community involvement.


2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amir Hamzah Sharaai ◽  
Khairul Izzudin Muhammad ◽  
Yeoh Geok Wah

Commercial convention of tea production and plantation at the largest scale in this country has shown an escalation year by year, together with the high demand for tea products in the Malaysian market. This may have a direct social impact throughout the life cycle of tea production. Thus, this research sought to identify the social impacts from the overall process of tea production. This study used the Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) involving descriptive analysis by assessing the social impacts associated with the stakeholders of tea production using three sets of questionnaires. The studies were conducted at one of the highest tea production companies in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia. The findings of the stakeholders showed a good level of satisfaction because there was no significant negative effect. Overall, the social aspects of the tea production met the required criteria in terms of social significance. However, there were some social aspects that can be improved by the factory in the future such as health and safety, discrimination, job opportunity and local community involvement.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 3856
Author(s):  
Rebeka Kovačič Lukman ◽  
Vasja Omahne ◽  
Damjan Krajnc

When considering the sustainability of production processes, research studies usually emphasise environmental impacts and do not adequately address economic and social impacts. Toy production is no exception when it comes to assessing sustainability. Previous research on toys has focused solely on assessing environmental aspects and neglected social and economic aspects. This paper presents a sustainability assessment of a toy using environmental life cycle assessment, life cycle costing, and social life cycle assessment. We conducted an inventory analysis and sustainability impact assessment of the toy to identify the hotspots of the system. The main environmental impacts are eutrophication, followed by terrestrial eco-toxicity, acidification, and global warming. The life cycle costing approach examined the economic aspect of the proposed design options for toys, while the social assessment of the alternative designs revealed social impacts along the product life cycle. In addition, different options based on the principles of the circular economy were analysed and proposed in terms of substitution of materials and shortening of transport distances for the toy studied.


2019 ◽  
Vol 142 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew T. Pack ◽  
Emma Rose Phipps ◽  
Christopher A. Mattson ◽  
Eric C. Dahlin

Abstract Though academic research for identifying and considering the social impact of products is emerging, additional insights can be gained from engineers who design products every day. This paper explores current practices in industries used by design engineers to consider the social impact of products. Forty-six individuals from 34 different companies were interviewed to discover what disconnects exist between academia and industry when considering a product’s social impact. These interviews were also used to discover how social impact might be considered in a design setting moving forward. This is not a study to find “the state of the art,” but considers the average engineering professional’s work to design products in various industries. Social impact assessments (SIA) and social life cycle assessments (SLCA) are two of the most common processes discussed in the literature to evaluate social impact, both generally and in products. Interestingly, these processes did not arise in any discussion in interviews, despite respondents affirming that they do consider social impact in the product design. Processes used to predict social impact, rather than simply evaluate, were discussed by the respondents. These tended to be developed within the company and often related to industry imposed government regulations. To build on this study, the findings herein should be further validated for executives, managers, and engineers. A study specific to these roles should be designed to understand the disconnect better. Additionally, processes should be developed to assist engineers in considering the social impact of their products. Work should also be done to help educate engineers and their leaders on the value of considering the social impact in product design.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (18) ◽  
pp. 10177
Author(s):  
Oluwaseun Nubi ◽  
Stephen Morse ◽  
Richard J. Murphy

This research assesses the social impacts that could arise from the potential waste-to-energy (WtE) generation of electricity from municipal solid waste (MSW) in the cities of Lagos and Abuja in Nigeria. Social life cycle assessment (sLCA) was the main analytical approach used coupled with a participatory approach to identify relevant social issues to serve as the potential sLCA impact ‘subcategories’. Focus group research in both cities led to the identification of 11 social issues that were transformed into social impact subcategories with appropriate indicators for the sLCA. These were populated with data from a questionnaire-based survey with approximately 140 stakeholders. The results indicated that the impact subcategories “Improved Electricity Supply” and “Income” were ranked respectively as having the most and the least significant social impacts associated with the potential adoption of WtE in these two cities in Nigeria. Overall, the research showed that the expected social impact was higher for WtE electricity generation in Lagos than in Abuja. This difference may be related to the higher population and greater amounts of waste in Lagos and its position as a hub for many of the country’s commercial and industrial activities which have long been affected by inadequate electricity supply. This study also provides an example of the use of participatory processes as an important approach in sLCA for the elucidation of social issues that are directly pertinent to key local perspectives when considering such technology implementations.


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