Social sustainability assessments in the biobased economy: Towards a systemic approach

Abstract

The majority of impact assessments for the biobased economy are primarily focused on the environmental and (techno-)economic aspects, while social aspects are rarely considered. This study proposes a modified systemic approach for a social sustainability impact assessment of the biobased economy, based on a review on the common methodologies for assessing social impacts. Accordingly, the proposed approach follows the four general iterative steps of social life cycle analysis (SLCA) as it considers all life cycle phases of the biobased economy. The systemic approach considers the potential social impacts on local communities, workers, and consumers as the main three groups of the stakeholders. The review showed that the most common social indicators for inventory analysis within the biobased economy include health and safety, food security, income, employment, land-and worker-related concerns, energy security, profitability, and gender issues. Multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) was also highlighted as the broadly utilized methodology for aggregating the results of impact assessments within the biobased economy. Taking a life cycle perspective, this study provides a holistic view of the full sustainability of research, design, and innovation in the biobased economy by suggesting the integration of the social aspects with techno-economic and an environmental life cycle assessment. Our proposed systemic approach makes possible to integrate the social impacts that are highly valued by the affected stakeholders into the existing sustainability models that focus only on environmental and techno-economic aspects. We discuss the steps of the proposed systemic approach in order to identify the challenges of applying them within the biobased economy. These challenges refer mainly to the definition of the functional unit and system boundaries, the selection and the analysis of social indicators (inventory analysis), the aggregation of the inventory to impact categories, and the uncertainties associated with the social sustainability evaluation. The result of this review and the proposed systemic approach serve as a foundation for industry and policy makers to gain a better insight into the importance of social sustainability impacts assessment within the biobased economy.

Social Life Cycle Approach as a Tool for Promoting the Market Uptake of Bio-Based Products from a Consumer Perspective

“…Moreover, the literature also calls to other types of impact. Examples include those related to gender issues (see [2,29]). …”

“…Overall, the transition towards a bio-based economy is expected to deliver social and socio-economic benefits in a broad spectrum of areas, spanning from health and safety to working conditions, employment and prosperity, access to material and non-material resources, food and energy security, and gender issues (see [2,29]). These areas have been intertwined with Europe 2020 objectives and UN sustainable development goals (SDGs) (see [30,31]).…”

“…With reference to social well-being, and in line with [48], PROSUITE took four core aspects into consideration: (i) autonomy; (ii) safety, security and tranquillity; (iii) equality; and (iv) participation and influence. This work was subsequently taken up by [29] who suggested a general "modified systemic approach for a social sustainability impact assessment", tailored to the bio-based economy. In particular, the authors paid particular attention to the second step of the SLCA, i.e., the inventory analysis.…”

“…This database covers 88 indicators in total, addressing 25 main indicators (sub-categories). However, as emphasized by Rafiaani et al [29], there are no specific data for bio-based products.…”

Transitioning towards the bio‐economy: Assessing the social dimension through a stakeholder lens

“…Recently, along with emerging comprehensive LCSA studies (see Jungmeier et al, 2016;Keller, Rettenmaier, & Reinhardt, 2015) and research on environmental impacts, there has been an increase in SLCA studies focused on bio-based products (see, e.g., Macombe, Leskinen, Feschet, & Antikainen, 2013;Rafiaani et al, 2018;Siebert, Bezama, O'Keeffe, & Thrän, 2018a). The use of adequate measures could support policy makers in designing a fit-for-purpose social sustainability scheme (with respect to, e.g., standards, labels, and certifications) that effectively addresses product-related impacts on different stakeholders (Jørgensen, Dreyer, & Wangel, 2012).…”