scholarly journals Social Consideration in Product Life Cycle for Product Social Sustainability

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (20) ◽  
pp. 11292
Author(s):  
Somayeh Rezaei Kalvani ◽  
Amir Hamzah Sharaai ◽  
Ibrahim Kabir Abdullahi
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Value Chain ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Product Life Cycle ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Social Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Specific Data ◽  
Employment Relationships ◽  
Research On Evaluation ◽  
Final Consumer

Social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) is an emerging and pivotal tool for sustainability evaluation of products throughout their life cycle. Understanding deeply published papers helps to modify methods and identify research gaps. The aim of this study is to discover the existing gap in the S-LCA of products and to find the weaknesses of the approach. The method of performing the review was a narrative review where published papers from 2006 to 2020 were included through the use of the Web of Science and Scopus databases. S-LCA is considered to be relevant to a majority of sectors and processes (agricultural, industrial, technology, energy, and tourism). However, there is not sufficient research on evaluation of S-LCA on cereal crops and livestock output. It is indicated that, in the present S-LCA studies, there has been a lack of attention paid to the society and value chain actors and final consumer stakeholders. The elements of sexual harassment and employment relationships are not considered in SLCA studies. Italy has the largest amount of cases of S-LCA studies. The major challenges of applying S-LCA (by using site specific data) is data collection, which is time-consuming. It is recommended to evaluate a comprehensive sustainability assessment by adding cost of social assessment to LCA since there has been a lack of attention on assessment of cost in S-LCA.

scholarly journals Sustainability Assessment with Integrated Circular Economy Principles: A Toy Case Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 3856
Author(s):  
Rebeka Kovačič Lukman ◽  
Vasja Omahne ◽  
Damjan Krajnc
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Product Life Cycle ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Social Impacts ◽  
Life Cycle Costing ◽  
Social Life Cycle Assessment

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.

scholarly journals Comprehensive Evaluation of the Sustainable Development of Battery Electric Vehicles in China

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (20) ◽  
pp. 5635 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wang ◽  
Zhou ◽  
Li ◽  
Wei
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Electric Vehicles ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Social Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Battery Electric Vehicles ◽  
The Social

Due to the rapid growth in the total number of vehicles in China, energy consumption and environmental pollution are serious problems. The development of electric vehicles (EVs) has become one of the important measures for solving these problems. As EVs are in a period of rapid development, sustainability research on them is conducive to the timely discovery of—and solution to—problems in the development process, but current research on the sustainability of EVs is still scarce. Based on the strategic development direction of EVs in China, battery electric vehicles (BEVs) were chosen as the research object of this study. The theory and method of the life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) were used to study the sustainability of BEVs. Specifically, the indicators of the life cycle assessment (LCA) were constructed, and the GaBi software was used to assess the environmental dimensions. The framework of life cycle costing (LCC) was used to assess the economic dimensions from the perspective of consumers. The indicators of the social life cycle assessment (SLCA) of stakeholders were constructed to assess the social dimension. Then, the method of the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) was selected for multicriteria decision-making in order to integrate the three dimensions. A specific conclusion was drawn from a comparison of BEVs and internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs). The study found that the life cycle sustainability of ICEVs in China was better than that of BEVs. This result might be unexpected, but there were reasons for it. Through sensitivity analysis, it was concluded that the current power structure and energy consumption in the operation phase of BEVs had a higher environmental impact, and the high cost of batteries and the government subsidy policy had a higher impact on the cost of BEVs. Corresponding suggestions are put forward at the end of the article.

scholarly journals Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment of a Novel Bio-Based Multilayer Panel for Construction Applications

Resources ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 98
Author(s):  
Aitor Barrio ◽  
Fernando Burgoa Francisco ◽  
Andrea Leoncini ◽  
Lars Wietschel ◽  
Andrea Thorenz
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Pilot Scale ◽  
Social Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Manufacturing Processes ◽  
Ozone Formation ◽  
Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Material Consumption ◽  
Social Standards

The bioeconomy can be integral to transforming the current economic system into one with reduced environmental and social impacts of material consumption. This work describes a bio-based multi-layer panel that is based on residual coniferous bark. To ensure that the presented bio-based panel positively contributes to environmental protection while remaining competitive with conventional products and meeting high social standards, the development of the panel is accompanied by a life cycle sustainability assessment. This study performs a comparative LCA and LCC of the developed panel to conventional benchmark panels, as well as a qualitative social life cycle assessment. While the panel performs only economically marginally weaker than the benchmarks, the results are more heterogeneous for the environmental dimension with benefits of the bio-based panel in categories such as climate change, acidification, and ozone formation and detriments in categories including eutrophication. The S-LCA analysis shows that all of the involved companies apply social principles in direct proximity; however, social responsibility along the supply chain could be further promoted. All results need to be viewed with the caveat that the manufacturing processes for the new panel have been implemented, to date, on a pilot scale and further improvements need to be achieved in terms of upscaling and optimisation cycles.

scholarly journals Exploring the Current Challenges and Opportunities of Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 636 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rizal Taufiq Fauzi ◽  
Patrick Lavoie ◽  
Luca Sorelli ◽  
Mohammad Davoud Heidari ◽  
Ben Amor
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Social Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Research Gaps ◽  
Hotspot Analysis ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities

Sustainability decision making is a complex task for policy makers, considering the possible unseen consequences it may entail. With a broader scope covering environmental, economic, and social aspects, Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) is a promising holistic method to deal with that complexity. However, to date, this method is limited to the hotspot analysis of a product, service, or system, and hence only assesses direct impacts and overlooks the indirect ones (or consequences). This critical literature review aims to explore the challenges and the research gaps related to the integration of three methods in LCSA representing three pillars of sustainability: (Environmental) Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Life Cycle Costing (LCC), and Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA). The challenges and the research gaps that appear when pairing two of these tools with each other are identified and discussed, i.e., the temporal issues, different perspectives, the indirect consequences, etc. Although this study does not aim to remove the shadows in LCSA methods, critical research gaps are identified in order to be addressed in future works. More case studies are also recommended for a deeper understanding of methodological trade-offs that might happen, especially when dealing with the consequential perspective.

scholarly journals Analysis of Worker Category Social Impacts in Different Types of Concrete Plant Operations: A Case Study in South Korea

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 3661 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seungjun Roh ◽  
Sungho Tae ◽  
Rakhyun Kim ◽  
Daniela Martínez
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Social Impacts ◽  
International Standards ◽  
Social Life Cycle Assessment

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.

Social aspects for sustainability assessment of technologies—challenges for social life cycle assessment (SLCA)

2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (8) ◽  
pp. 1581-1592 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annekatrin Lehmann ◽  
Eva Zschieschang ◽  
Marzia Traverso ◽  
Matthias Finkbeiner ◽  
Liselotte Schebek
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Social Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Social Aspects

scholarly journals Integrating Regionalized Socioeconomic Considerations onto Life Cycle Assessment for Evaluating Bioeconomy Value Chains: A Case Study on Hybrid Wood–Concrete Ceiling Elements

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 4221
Author(s):  
Alberto Bezama ◽  
Jakob Hildebrandt ◽  
Daniela Thrän
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Value Chain ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Lightweight Concrete ◽  
Assessment Method ◽  
Social Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Value Chains ◽  
Development Scenarios ◽  
Industrial Sectors

As bioeconomy strategies strive to integrate industrial sectors for achieving innovative materials alternative to the ones produced from non-renewable resources, the development of monitoring systems and tools to assess the implementation of such value chains is still a work in progress. This work intended to integrate the traditional life cycle assessment with a regionalized social life cycle assessment method to evaluate alternative production scenarios of a hybrid construction system with a wood-based lightweight concrete panel as a core component currently in its final stages of technical development. The life cycle impact assessment was carried out by comparing the relative advantages of two product development scenarios against the reference system’s results. The social life cycle assessment was carried out using the model “REgional SPecific cONtextualised Social life cycle Assessment” (RESPONSA), which was developed for assessing wood-based value chains under a regional scope. The results showed that both alternative scenarios present large advantages when compared to the reference system. Moreover, the implementation of the production value chain was found to imply positive socioeconomic advantages in the region, in particular, due to the quality of the jobs found in the organizations associated with the production system.

scholarly journals Social Sustainability Assessment in Livestock Production: A Social Life Cycle Assessment Approach

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (16) ◽  
pp. 4419 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriana Rivera-Huerta ◽  
María de la Salud Rubio Lozano ◽  
Alejandro Padilla-Rivera ◽  
Leonor Patricia Güereca
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Social Performance ◽  
Livestock Production ◽  
Social Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
The Social ◽  
Significant Difference

This study evaluates the social performance of monoculture (MC), intensive silvopastoral (ISP), and native silvopastoral (NSP) livestock production systems in the tropical region of southeastern Mexico through a social life cycle assessment (SCLA) approach. The methodological framework proposed by the United Nations Environmental Program/Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (UNEP/SETAC) (2009) was employed based on a scoring approach with a performance scale ranging from 1 (very poor) to 4 (outstanding). Twelve livestock ranches for calf production were evaluated using 18 impact subcategories associated with the categories “human rights”, “working conditions”, “health and safety”, “socioeconomic repercussions”, and “governance”. The stakeholders evaluated were workers, the local community, society, and value chain actors. The ranches had performance scores between 1.78 (very poor) and 2.17 (poor). The overall average performance of the ranches by production system was 1.98, 1.96, and 1.97 for the MC, ISP, and NSP systems, respectively. The statistical analysis shows that there is no significant difference in the social performance of the livestock production systems. This assessment indicates that the cattle ranches analyzed in Mexico have poor or very poor social performance. The results show that socioeconomic and political contexts exert a greater influence on the social performance of livestock production systems than does their type of technology.

scholarly journals Principles for the application of life cycle sustainability assessment

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (9) ◽  
pp. 1900-1905 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonia Valdivia ◽  
Jana Gerta Backes ◽  
Marzia Traverso ◽  
Guido Sonnemann ◽  
Stefano Cucurachi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Social Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Bottom Line ◽  
Life Cycle Initiative ◽  
Iso 14040 ◽  
Trade Offs

Abstract Purpose and context This paper aims to establish principles for the increased application and use of life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA). Sustainable development (SD) encompassing resilient economies and social stability of the global system is growingly important for decision-makers from business and governments. The “17 SDGs” emerge as a high-level shared blueprint for peace, abundance, and prosperity for people and the planet, and “sustainability” for supporting improvements of products and organizations. A “sustainability” interpretation—successful in aligning stakeholders’ understanding—subdivides the impacts according to a triple bottom line or three pillars: economic, social, and environmental impacts. These context and urgent needs inspired the LCSA framework. This entails a sustainability assessment of products and organizations in accordance with the three pillars, while adopting a life cycle perspective. Methods The Life Cycle Initiative promotes since 2011 a pragmatic LCSA framework based on the three techniques: LCSA = environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) + life cycle costing (LCC) + social life cycle assessment (S-LCA). This is the focus of the paper, while acknowledging previous developments. Identified and reviewed literature shows challenges of addressing the three pillars in the LCSA framework implementation like considering only two pillars; not being fully aligned with ISO 14040; lacking interconnectedness among the three pillars; not having clear criteria for results’ weighting nor clear results’ interpretation; and not following cause-effect chains and mechanisms leading to an endpoint. Agreement building among LCSA experts and reviewing processes strengthened the consensus on this paper. Broad support and outreach are ensured by publishing this as position paper. Results For harmonizing practical LCSA applications, easing interpretation, and increasing usefulness, consensed ten LCSA principles (10P) are established: understanding the areas of protection, alignment with ISO 14040, completeness, stakeholders’ and product utility considerations, materiality of system boundaries, transparency, consistency, explicit trade-offs’ communication, and caution when compensating impacts. Examples were provided based on a fictional plastic water bottle Conclusions In spite of increasing needs for and interest in SD and sustainability supporting tools, LCSA is at an early application stage of application. The 10P aim to promote more and better LCSA applications by ensuring alignment with ISO 14040, completeness and clear interpretation of integrated results, among others. For consolidating its use, however, more consensus-building is needed (e.g., on value-laden ethical aspects of LCSA, interdependencies and interconnectedness among the three dimensions, and harmonization and integration of the three techniques) and technical and policy recommendations for application.

scholarly journals A Regional Socio-Economic Life Cycle Assessment of a Bioeconomy Value Chain

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 1259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lena Jarosch ◽  
Walther Zeug ◽  
Alberto Bezama ◽  
Matthias Finkbeiner ◽  
Daniela Thrän
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Value Chain ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
Social Dimension ◽  
Social Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Production Chain ◽  
The Social

A bioeconomy tackles sustainable development at both the global and regional levels, as it relies on the optimized use of renewable bio-based resources for the provisioning of food, materials, and energy to meet societal demands. The effects of the bioeconomy can be best observed at a regional level, as it supports regional development and affects the social dimension of sustainability. In order to assess the social impacts of wood-based production chains with regional differentiation, the social life cycle assessment framework “RESPONSA” was established in 2018. We present an initial study, in which this method is applied to an exemplary production chain in a case study of laminated veneer lumber produced in central Germany. The results show a relatively better social performance compared to the reference economic sector, reflecting a relatively low rate of female employees as a major social hotspot. Several social opportunities are identified, in terms of health and safety, equal opportunities, and adequate remuneration, for the organization taking part in the value chain. Finally, considering the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a global normative framework, a number of additional indicators for RESPONSA, as well as further developments and recommendations regarding its application in other regions and the upcoming social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) guidelines, are identified.

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