Modeling the environmental and social impacts of the handloom industry in Bangladesh through life cycle assessment

Mahiat, Tashfia; Alam, Md Asef Al; Argho, Maxim; Corlett, Jackie; Chowdhury, Rubel Biswas; Biswas, Karabi Farhana; Hossain, Mohammad Mosharraf; Sujauddin, Mohammad

doi:10.1007/s40808-022-01491-7

Cited by 7 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 24 publications

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“…Recent S-LCA reviews about the agri-food [22], solid waste management [20], and biofuel [21] sectors found that most studies follow a mixed approach where quantitative and qualitative data are collected but organizations have difficulties in collecting OHS data [23]. Following the Type I approach results in selecting OHS indicators about (1) policy concerning health and safety; (2) general occupational safety measures; (3) preventive measures and emergency protocols for accidents and injuries; and (4) appropriate protective gear required, which are assessed with a 0-5 or 0-4 point index [24][25][26]. Alternatively, social databases are employed to quantify OHS with risk hours [27,28].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Introducing the Occupational Health and Safety Potential Midpoint Impact Indicator in Social Life Cycle Assessment

Tsalidis

2024

Sustainability

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Occupational health and safety (OSH) is crucial for sustainable development, recognized by corporations, the European Union, and Sustainable Development Goals. This study introduces a characterization model for OSH in the social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) to support the quantification of OHS along product supply chains and sustainable decision making. The characterization model aims to provide a practical approach for assessing OHS at the product level with actual working hours or recommends a secondary approach with monetary data, when working hours are unavailable, to calculate the Occupational Health and Safety Potential (OHSP). The developed model was tested in a theoretical case study on shirt production in Europe and globally. The case study shows that the European shirt value chain resulted in higher OHSP values than the global shirt values chain. In addition, the model shows which life cycle stages and organizations highly contributed to the OHSP results. In both approaches, the shirt production stage contributed highly. Differences in results emerged based on the calculation approach, underscoring the model’s versatility, because increasing the complexity of calculating the CFs with monetary values will affect the results based on sectorial monetary output. Additionally, the study mentions benefits to the operationalization of social impact assessment and limitations when the developed characterized model is employed. Last, this study aids in offering a tool for organizations to meet the demands of the new Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive by quantifying and publicizing OHS data.

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