Application challenges for the social Life Cycle Assessment of fertilizers within life cycle sustainability assessment

Martínez-Blanco, Julia; Lehmann, Annekatrin; Muñoz, Pere; Antón, Assumpció; Traverso, Marzia; Rieradevall, Joan; Finkbeiner, Matthias

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.01.044

Cited by 210 publications

(133 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…In addition, research by Carter and Jennings (2002), Carter (2005, and Carter and Easton (2011) propose Purchasing Social Responsibility and Logistics Social Responsibility, which encompass social issues such as diversity, philanthropy, safety, and human rights in the supply chain. Similarly, studies by Whooley (2004) and Maloni and Brown (2006) propose the importance of safety, diversity, equity, human rights and labour practices in the supply chain, whereas other scholars describe similar means through which such social issues can be addressed in the supply chain (Clarkson, 1995;Strong, 1997;McWilliams and Siegel, 2001;Guinee et al, 2011;Macombe et al, 2013;Sala et al, 2013;Martínez-Blanco et al, 2014). Chin and Tat (2015) have identified employee diversity practices in Malaysian manufacturing companies and their relationship to sustainability.…”

Section: Social Sustainability In the Supply Chainmentioning

confidence: 99%

Supply chain social sustainability for developing nations: Evidence from India

Mani

Gunasekaran

Παπαδόπουλος

et al. 2016

Resources, Conservation and Recycling

202

147

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Economic, environmental and social aspects of sustainability have been shown to span beyond organizational boundaries, indicating the importance of managing sustainability initiatives across the supply chain. Although scholars and practitioners focus a great deal of attention toward economic and environmental sustainability in supply chains, less attention is paid to social aspects. This is unfortunate, because social sustainability not only plays an important role in enabling other sustainability initiatives, but social injustices in one echelon of a supply chain can lead to significant losses for firms across the chain. Social issues have been especially problematic in developing nations, where abusive labor practices continue to negatively affect trading partners. This research seeks to disambiguate supply chain social sustainability in developing nations by uncovering relevant dimensions of social sustainability and resultant outcomes. Using semi-structured interview data collected from supply chain executives in Indian manufacturing companies, this research uncovers dimensions of social sustainability in terms of not only the focal firm, but also first-tier suppliers and customers. Each of these dimensions are then associated to potential performance outcomes. The findings not only provide a baseline for future research, but help practitioners understand where to focus their attention to enhance social sustainability in their supply chains.

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Section: Social Sustainability In the Supply Chainmentioning

confidence: 99%

Supply chain social sustainability for developing nations: Evidence from India

Mani

Gunasekaran

Παπαδόπουλος

et al. 2016

Resources, Conservation and Recycling

202

147

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“…As a result, given the difficulty of obtaining information from the customer that commissioned the garment from the study case, sector level and country-specific data were considered, adopting an approach similar to those used by Padilla-Rivera et al [37], Vuaillat et al [38] and, Martínez-Blanco et al [39]: data collection includes both primary and specific data (at company and product level) and generic data (at country-specific sector level-global and national processes). Although social impacts are mainly due to company behaviour and the main scope of the analysis is to evaluate its influence on territorial values, country and sector specific data are also taken into account when primary data are not available; generic data are taken into account for background processes through the use of the Social Hotspot Database.…”

Section: Inventory Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Life Cycle Assessment in the Textile Sector: An Italian Case Study

et al. 2017

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This study presents the first application of the Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) to a textile product made in Sicily (Italy), according to the Social Life Cycle Assessment guidelines (UNEP). The main goal is to assess and present the social values of a product manufactured in a particular territorial area where the presence of an industry represents the main source of employment. The first part of the study is a literature review of the current state of the art of the S-LCA and its implementation to textile products. In the implementation, particular attention is paid in identifying the positive impacts and in highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of the method when applied in this specific sector. The functional unit of the study is an order for a garment (consisting of 495 capes in a soft blend of wool and cashmere), produced by a textile company located in Sicily (Italy). The system boundaries of the study include all phases from cradle-to-gate, i.e. from raw material production through fabric/accessory production to the manufacturing process of the product itself at the company. Background and foreground processes are taken into account using specific and generic data. Two stakeholder groups have been considered (workers and local communities) as those that can better represent the company's value in the territory. The analysis carried out on the functional unit of the study allowed assessing social performance related to the specific textile product, but also to outline the general behaviour of the company. Results offer to scholars a perspective on which to focus their future researches in the sector and highlight that S-LCA is a valuable tool to support business decisions, assessing the social impact of the product to improve the social conditions of stakeholders. However, the access to primary and/or good quality local, national and global data is essential to draw credible conclusions; consequently, every effort to promote the application for S-LCA is highly suggested.

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“…Both attributes chosen for analysis have different levels of abstraction, i.e., labor relations can be perceived as a part of a larger attribute-power relations. This corresponds to the idea presented by several authors that the impacts of social relations are multi-layered [14,16]. The selection of attributes at different scales allows us to ascertain separately each attribute's performance; to observe how social performance is conditioned by the attributes' inter-relations; to grasp the multi-layered nature of the social dimension; and to trace the links between the attributes.…”

Section: The Social Dimension Of Food Chainsmentioning

confidence: 78%

“…The level of the methodological sophistication of the measurement instruments associated with each of the sustainability pillars differs significantly. The social dimension lags behind in terms of both its methodological approaches and the empirical evidence it has generated [11,14,15].…”

Section: The Social Dimension Of Food Chainsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Comparative Analysis of the Social Performance of Global and Local Berry Supply Chains

et al. 2016

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Abstract:The goal of this paper is twofold: to comparatively analyze the social performance of global and local berry supply chains and to explore the ways in which the social dimension is embedded in the overall performance of food supply chains. To achieve this goal, the social performance of five global and local food supply chains in two countries are analyzed: wild blueberry supply chains in Latvia and cultivated raspberry supply chains in Serbia. The study addresses two research questions:(1) What is the social performance of the local and global supply chains? (2) How can references to context help improve understanding of the social dimension and social performance of food supply chains? To answer these questions, two interlinked thematic sets of indicators (attributes) are used-one describing labor relations and the other describing power relations. These lists are then contextualized by examining the micro-stories of the actors involved in these supply chains. An analysis of the chosen attributes reveals that global chains perform better than local chains. However, a context-sensitive analysis from the perspective of embedded markets and communities suggests that the social performance of food chains is highly context-dependent, relational, and affected by actors' abilities to negotiate values, norms, and the rules embedded within these chains, both global and local. The results illustrate that the empowerment of the chains' weakest actors can lead to a redefining of the meanings that performance assessments rely on.

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Application challenges for the social Life Cycle Assessment of fertilizers within life cycle sustainability assessment

Cited by 210 publications

References 33 publications

Supply chain social sustainability for developing nations: Evidence from India

Supply chain social sustainability for developing nations: Evidence from India

Social Life Cycle Assessment in the Textile Sector: An Italian Case Study

A Comparative Analysis of the Social Performance of Global and Local Berry Supply Chains

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