Social Life Cycle Assessment in the Construction Industry: Systematic Literature Review and Identification of Relevant Social Indicators for Carbon Reinforced Concrete

Abstract

This article deals with the application of social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) in the construction sector and explicitly focuses on carbon reinforced concrete (CRC). The publication consists of two parts: (1) a scientific literature review on the current implementation of S-LCA in the construction sector, and (2) the definition of the relevant social hotspots for the cradle-to-gate production of CRC. The literature review was conducted to provide a general overview and compare S-LCA studies in the construction sector; second, countries that provide the relevant input materials needed for CRC were identified. Analysis within the Social Hotspot Database (SHDB) helped determine the relative importance of the CRC supply country for each social category and subcategory. By developing a metric in the form of scores for each risk information, the potential risks indicated by the SHDB were measured. The results show that the focus of the indicators to be highlighted and further used in the indicator catalog is particularly in the area of labor rights and decent work in the health and safety subcategory. Missing data within the SHDB may result in a defined high average score and lead to a lower level of information. In the future, the identified 36 social indicators for CRC should be revised again in cooperation with the manufacturing industry. This study aims to further raise awareness in the construction sector of life-cycle-based sustainability that goes beyond the environmental aspects, and it is the first social hotspot screening using the SHDB for CRC.

Towards Sustainable Roads: A Systematic Review of Triple-Bottom-Line-Based Assessment Methods

“…Furthermore, social assessment is often neglected in the road sector since only a few stand-alone S-LCA studies exist in the literature [22,164]. This finding is consistent with similar observations in the construction industry [165]. Less than half of the reviewed publications applied S-LCA to assess social impacts.…”

“…S-LCA enables the consideration of all relevant stakeholders and the consistent application of a life cycle approach equivalent to LCA and LCC. Moreover, only a few of the reviewed studies considered the stakeholder category of workers, although relevant construction sector issues include workers' working conditions and health and safety [165]. In the reviewed studies, workers were only considered during the construction stage.…”

Visualization and Interpretation of Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment—Existing Tools and Future Development

“…To prove the applicability of the LCSA-Wheel and provide a short example, an implementation of LCSA results for carbon reinforced concrete based on previous studies [30,31] is conducted in the following. The system boundary is defined as cradle-to-gate, and the functional unit is defined as a double wall made of carbon reinforced concrete-based on and as a continuation of a previous LCA.…”

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

“…In S-LCA studies, OHS belongs to the most considered stakeholder category [19] and is one of the most considered impact subcategories [20,21]. 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].…”