Identifying Social Indicators for Sustainability Assessment of CCU Technologies: A Modified Multi-criteria Decision Making

Abstract

Carbon capture and utilization (CCU) technologies capture CO 2 waste emissions and utilize them to generate new products (such as fuels, chemicals, and materials) with various environmental, economic, and social opportunities. As most of these CCU technologies are in the R&D stage, their technical and economic viability are examined with less attention to the social aspect which is an important pillar for a holistic sustainability assessment. The lack of systematic social impact research is mainly due to the difficulty of identifying and quantifying social aspects through the entire life cycle of products. We will fill this gap for CCU technologies and identify the main social indicators. A multi-criteria decision making tool: technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) was applied to empirically determine which indicators are more relevant for assessing the social impact of a company operating CCU activities within a European context. First, seeing that social impact categories are linked to key stakeholder groups, we considered workers, consumers, and local communities as relevant stakeholders. Second, the main social impact categories and their potential performance indicators associated to each group of stakeholders were listed using the United Nations Environment Program/Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (UNEP/SETAC) guidelines. In the third step, an online questionnaire was distributed to identify the main social categories and indicators for CCU, to which 33 European CCU experts responded. Finally, a modified TOPSIS was applied to rank the indicators based on their relevance. We found that the indicators related to "end of life responsibility" and "transparency" within a CCU company achieved the highest rank affecting the consumers group, whereas "fair salary" and "equal opportunities/discriminations" were determined as the most relevant impact categories for the workers. For the local community group, "secure living conditions" and "local employment" received the highest priority from the experts' point of view. Furthermore, "health and safety" considerations were identified as one of the most important criteria affecting all three groups of stakeholders. The ranking list of the main social indicators identified in our study provides the basis for the next steps in the social sustainability assessment of CCU technologies; that is, data collection and impact assessment. Our outcomes can also be used to inform the producers regarding the most and least relevant social aspects of CCU so that the potential social impacts caused by their production activities can be improved or prevented.

Apples and Apples: A Shortcut Assessment Framework for Early‐Stage Carbon Capture and Utilization Technologies Based on Efficiency, Feasibility, and Risk

“…Enviro‐economic indicators such as the cost of CO 2 avoided and social criteria and indicators were so far excluded from the Efferi framework; the former has an additional layer of uncertainty, [ 15 ] which needs to be resolved first and the latter is currently not common in the assessment of early‐stage CCU technologies [ 33 ] and its application is limited for the assessment in companies. [ 75 ] As the Efferi framework takes a cradle‐to‐gate assessment scope and analyzes one impact category, GWI, it only represents a preliminary environmental impact assessment; results have limited validity and shall be interpreted with caution.…”

A critical view on social performance assessment at company level: social life cycle analysis of an algae case

“…The complete versions of the questionnaires are provided in the section of the Electronic Supplementary Material. The results of the survey were analyzed using a multi-criteria decision-making tool (Rafiaani et al 2019). In the UNEP/SETAC (2009), subcategories and, accordingly, the indicators are defined related to each stakeholder group.…”

“…The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD 2016) also introduced these three groups as the targeted stakeholders for SLCA of chemical products. Based on the results of the survey study (Rafiaani et al 2019), the subcategories and their related indicators that rank higher were selected for further assessment in the present study ( Table 1). The results cover the following main subcategories: regarding the workers group: "fair salary"; "health and safety"; and "equal opportunities/discrimination"; for the consumer group: "end of life responsibility"; "transparency"; and "health and safety"; for the local community group: "safe and healthy living conditions"; "secure living conditions"; and "local employment."…”

“…According to methodological sheets (UNEP/SETAC 2013) of SLCA and based on the results of the survey study (Rafiaani et al 2019), "rate of female to male employee" is an important indicator to measure the performance of the company in providing equal opportunities for a broad population whatever their gender is. Actively enhancing equality at work also provides companies access to a wider range of potential workers.…”

Developing a triple helix approach for CO2 utilisation assessment

“…The low technology readiness (TRL) of many CDU processes has been identified as an issue for data gathering for social assessment. 38 However, as CDU processes have the potential to provide sustainable solutions in numerous sectors, the low TRL should not inhibit attempts to establish how social impacts could affect CDU deployment. Rafianni et al highlights that the lack of data can be tackled using experts to identify the most relevant areas to focus social assessment on.…”