S-LCA Flashcards
Sustainable Development Goals related to S-LCA
- no poverty
- zero hunger
- gender equality
- decent work and economic growth
- responsible consumption and production
Aspects considered in S-LCA
- working conditions
- human rights
- human health
- cultural heritage
- child labor
Tools and approaches for assessing social conditions
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- Single site: Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Social Impact Assessment (SIA) –> process within establishment and facility/plant/site within establishment
- Enterprise: CSR type 1 and type 2 –> facility/plant/site within establishment and enterprise/management
- Enterprise and a limited part of the supply chain: CSR type 3 –> facility/plant/site within establishment and enterprise/management
- Product life cycle: E-LCA and S-LCA –> process within establishment and facility/plant/site within establishment
Why should the social dimension be considered?
Renewable materials reduce Co2 emissions and economic costs, but can potentially increase social risks.
S-LCA Guidelines
- UNEP/SETAC Task Force on S-LCA:
- under development to make it more practical
- positive and negative socio-economic and social impacts considered
- Social Life Cycle Metrics for Chemical Products - WBCSD
- developed by key players of chemical sector
- guide for chemical users through S-LCA
- Round Table of Product Social Metrics
- developed by companies
- upgraded to include small scale entrepreneurs + more consistent performance indicators; qualitative impact assessment instead of quantitative
Well-being definition
- concept or abstraction used to refer to whatever is assessed in an evaluation of a person’s life, situation or “being”
- the right to an adequate standard of living as a universal human right.
S-LCA
Assessment of the social effects of products along their whole life cycle.
Complementary method to LCA and LCC.
Social aspects and effects
Social aspects: positive or negative
Social effects: social and socio-economic
How can we assess the social dimension?
- S-LCA
- Databases: Social Hotspots Database
Social Life Cycle Metrics for Chemical Products
Aim is to guide chemical users throughout a social impact assessment of a chemical product with life cycle perspective.
Roundtable of Product Social Metrics
A group of companies sit together and decide to develop a methodology for assessing social impact of a product along its life cycle.
They match the current literature with the companies´strategy to develop a feasible set of indicators.
Handbook of Product Social Impact Assessment
Methodology for assessing the positive and negative social impacts of a product along its life cycle
Social Hotspot Database and PSILCA
Database provides secondary data for social life cycle, hotspot or risk assessments.
Social Databases are based on Global Trade Input Output ” models → provide insights in industries and production processes of sectors and countries
Challenges in S-LCA
- Global supply chains normally include different suppliers and sub-suppliers
- Database often lacking secondary data for different sectors, countries, products
- Social issues/aspects are hardly covered by databases
E-LCA & S-LCA
Similarities
- …are based on the ISO framework
- …iterative procedures;
- …provide information for decision-making;
- …do not have the purpose to provide information on whether or not a product should be produced;
- …conduct hotspots assessments;
- …huge need for data;
- …request peer review when communication to the public or comparative assertions are planned;
