Social Life Cycle Assessment: An Introduction

Moltesen, Andreas; Bonou, Alexandra; Wangel, Arne; Bozhilova-Kisheva, Kossara Petrova

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-56475-3_16

Cited by 16 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Pack et al [130] found that social impact assessments (SIAs) and social life cycle assessments (SLCAs) are two of the most common techniques for assessing social impact. SIAs can be used to analyze, monitor, and manage the intended and unintended social consequences of planned interventions [131], while SLCAs can be applied to understanding social issues arising in the value chains of products and services [132]. Design for social innovation (DfSI) aims to produce meaningful social innovation through dealing with all kinds of social change toward sustainability [133,134].…”

Section: Design Strategies Toward Social Domainmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Scoping Review of Ontologies Relevant to Design Strategies in Response to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Chou

2021

Sustainability

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Since the initiation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015, academia and industry have been taking action to seek how to address the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) via research, practice, and community engagement. Due to the UN SDGs comprising comprehensive domain-centric ontologies for reaching a consensus on their achievement, so far there has been a literature gap on how and what product design strategies can help achieve which of the SDGs. Inspired by the implication of creating a better world with design, this study conducted a scoping review to synthesize existing design strategies toward the implementation of the SDGs. More than 110 design strategies/methods were collected and synthesized as evidence to map onto the ontological domains of the SDGs. The results indicate that Goals 8, 9, 11, and 12 can be correspondingly addressed by the current body of design strategies, whereas a gap exists in the design strategies to address Goals 15, 16, and 17. Most of the corresponding strategies can be workable to Goals 3, 4, 6, and 7 to a certain extent and, in a broad sense, are in line with the contextual implications of Goals 1, 2, 5, 10, 13, and 14. This study provides a useful starting point for researchers to explore how design has been contributing to the sustainability goals. It also contributes to existing knowledge of the design discipline by providing methodological guidance for researchers and practitioners to conduct further research and practice on the UN SDGs.

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Section: Design Strategies Toward Social Domainmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Scoping Review of Ontologies Relevant to Design Strategies in Response to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Chou

2021

Sustainability

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“…Therefore, the environmental impacts reflect whether the production or the use of a product is environmentally sustainable. Furthermore, for Social LCA (SLCA), a consequential evaluation can be conducted, where the social consequences of a decision are compared with the social consequences of not taking this decision [32]. Benoît Norris [33] highlights the importance of a consequential SLCA to evaluate the costs and benefits of implementing a company's solution to improve social circumstances.…”

Section: Perspectives For the Use Of Attributional And Consequential Approaches In Sustainability Assessmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Archetypes of Goal and Scope Definitions for Consistent Allocation in LCA

2020

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The selection of an appropriate allocation procedure for co-production and recycling in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) depends on the goal and scope of the analysis. However, it is not always clear when partitioning or system expansion can be applied, or when to conduct an attributional or a consequential LCA, both for LCA practitioners and users of LCA results. In this paper, the influence of the goal and scope on the selected modeling approaches is clarified. The distinction between process-oriented and product-oriented LCAs, between system expansion and substitution, and between the cut-off approach and other allocation procedures are highlighted. Archetypes of goal and scope definitions are developed. These archetypes reflect the minimum amount of information required to select an allocation procedure. It is demonstrated via an illustrative example that the question “what is the environmental impact of a product” can result in at least 15 different research questions requiring at least five different modeling methods. Finally, perspectives are provided on the use of attributional and consequential approaches to evaluate the environmental, social, and economic sustainability of products and processes.

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“…Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a methodology used worldwide for estimating the impacts of a given economic activity, a company or a product/service throughout its life cycle (Hauschild et al 2018). Accordingly, social LCA (S-LCA) is an expansion of the LCA framework incorporating the assessment of social impacts (Moltesen et al 2018). Thus, under a life cycle perspective, S-LCA contributes to (1) identifying the social changes, (2) characterising them, and (3) evaluating them in relation to how they contribute to human well-being.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Even so, this methodology still has significant room for development both in terms of foundational issues (e.g. the concept of well-being) and more technical aspects (e.g., indicator development, valuation methods) (Moltesen et al 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social organisational LCA for the academic activity of the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU

Tolosa

Bueno

Etxano

et al. 2021

Int J Life Cycle Assess

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Purpose This article aims to estimate the social footprint of a higher education institution (HEI) and its potential contribution to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) under life cycle assessment (LCA) perspective. The social organisational life cycle assessment (SO-LCA) of the academic activity of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), in northern Spain, has been performed, in order to estimate its social impacts. Method The assessment has been run using openLCA software and supported on the PSILCA-based Soca add-on for the Ecoinvent v3.3 database, covering 53 social indicators for almost 15,000 industrial sectors and goods in 189 countries. Results and discussion The analysis undertaken reflects social impacts and associated risk levels for four stakeholders: Workers, Local Community, Society, and Value Chain Actors. Labour activity in the UPV/EHU is the sub-process with the greatest social impact, followed by processes related to transport, energy, materials, and waste management. Among the socio-economic context which supports the academic activity of the UPV/EHU (indirect impacts), the existence of traces of child labour and illiteracy outside the Basque Country stands out. Further analysis would be required in order to more accurately determine the geographical location of such impacts, and also to better tackle the concept of social debt. Conclusion SO-LCA may have great potential for HEIs, helping them to identify hotspots, reduce their social footprint, and raise awareness among the academic community, which undoubtedly contributes to the knowledge, progress, human values, and sustainability these HEIs stand for. Graphical abstract

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Social Life Cycle Assessment: An Introduction

Cited by 16 publications

References 13 publications

A Scoping Review of Ontologies Relevant to Design Strategies in Response to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

A Scoping Review of Ontologies Relevant to Design Strategies in Response to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Archetypes of Goal and Scope Definitions for Consistent Allocation in LCA

Social organisational LCA for the academic activity of the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU

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