Social implications of palm oil production through social life cycle perspectives in Johor, Malaysia

Abstract

Purpose: Palm oil is considered as the primary source of income for many farmers in Southeast Asia and become a very important agricultural commodity for the Malaysian economy in recent years. Besides its main usage as cooking oil, it is also exported to be used in many commercial foods and personal care products, as well as biofuels productions (Wong et al. Pertanika Journal of Scholarly Research Reviews 1:33-39, 2015). Over the years, the agricultural sector, especially the livestock and dairy sectors in particular, has been increasingly criticized for their environmental as well as social impacts (Revéret et al. 2015). However, while the products of the agricultural sector contributed significantly to the economic mainstay, the social aspects of it especially those associated with the workers, communities, and environment are equally important and often neglected. The purpose of this research is to identify potential social impacts (implications on workers and local community) throughout the whole life cycle of palm oil production using the Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) methodology. Methods: The methodology of this study consisted of several steps in the framework of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study. The steps involved were goal and scope definition, Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) analysis, Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA), and interpretation. Descriptive analyses that involved the social impact associated with the operation of palm oil mill, local community, and workers were used. In order to acquire information from these stakeholders, two sets of questionnaires were constructed based on the subcategories proposed by UNEP (2009). Results and discussion: The results on social aspects showed that the workers exhibited high value of satisfaction regarding social benefits conferred upon them such as annual leave, panel clinic, Employees Provident Fund (EPF), Social Security Organization (SOCSO) scheme, and public holidays. Meanwhile, the satisfaction level of the local community is different according to specific categories. For instance, a small percentage of satisfaction exists among the local community regarding the palm oil industry especially in heritage and cultural conservation. Conclusions: Findings from the S-LCA analysis are positive as palm oil production still met the required criteria in terms of social significance to those who are in direct contact with this operation especially the workers and local community.

Visualization of the Sustainability Level of Crude Palm Oil Production: A Life Cycle Approach

“…This means that the discrimination percentage in both mills was extremely low. This is confirmed by a similar studies carried out by [16,18] who stated that, the discrimination does not become a significant issue in the palm oil mills. The majority of the workers at mill A and only 89% of the workers at mill B were exhibited high level of satisfaction regarding social security organization (SOCSO) scheme.…”

“…In addition, the mills provided the necessary protective equipment to the workers. This is supported by a similar study conducted by [16]. Most of the workers stated that they were satisfied with the health and safety in their workplace.…”

“…[15] implemented the life cycle costing and sensitivity analysis to determine the cost impacts of palm biodiesel production. For social approaches, there have also been studies without a complete sustainability approach but which have identified the social impacts of the palm oil production in Malaysia [16][17][18] and in Indonesia [18]. However, there is no study that has implemented the three sustainability dimensions (environmental, economic, and social) to evaluate the oil palm production sustainability [19].…”

Social Consideration in Product Life Cycle for Product Social Sustainability

“…Table 1 indicates the sectors of the S-LCA studies. It shows that, to date, the social life cycle assessment has been evaluated in various sectors including the agricultural sector, such as [50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61] olive production [52], palm oil [53,54], sugarcane [55], pork production [56] cocoa production [57], honey [58], dairy farm [59], citrus production [60], and soybean [61]; the industrial sector, for example assessment of S-LCA on sugar industry [62], water [63,64], bioelectricity [65], energy [66], wood-based products [67], jewelry [68], waste management [69], computer software [70], laptop [71], bridges [72], technology [73], recycling [74], tourism [75], welding technology [76], (see Table 1). Walters and Mirkouei (2020) evaluated environmental and social LCA of the computer software industry to compare different scenarios to reduce time and CO 2 emission, and increase job satisfaction [70].…”

Social Impact Evaluation of Tea Production Using Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-Lca) Method in Cameron Highlands, Pahang, Malaysia

“…S-LCA is a technique of social impact assessment, which is aimed at assessing the social and socio-economic aspects of a product as well as the positive and negative impacts on the whole life cycle (Amir Hamzah, 2016). The assessment begins from the comprehensive production and processing of raw materials, production, distribution, use, reuse, maintenance, recycling and final disposal of a particular product (Muhammad, Sharaai, Ismail, Harun, & Wong, 2019).…”