Systematic literature review in social life cycle assessment

Petti, Luigia; Serreli, Monica; Cesare, Silvia Di

doi:10.1007/s11367-016-1135-4

Cited by 153 publications

(86 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…Social LCA is relatively a newer tool related to life cycle thinking (LCT) [20], where various efforts are being made such as the development of social impact assessment methods [21,22]. Product Social Impact Life Cycle Assessment database [23] (hereafter PSILCA) is one of the few databases available that compiles the life cycle inventory (LCI) for social issues which is defined in the guideline from UNEP-SETAC life cycle initiative [24].…”

Section: Social Life Cycle Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trade-Off between the Social and Environmental Performance of Green Concrete: The Case of 6 Countries

2018

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Improving the sustainability performance of construction industry is driven by two forces: regulatory push (policy initiatives), and market pull where improving a corporate sustainability performance can be financially beneficial for enterprises. Through the investigation of the sustainability hotspots and impacts, concerning social and environmental, of the steel slag mixed concrete (green concrete) the study assessed the factors relevant for its performance and examined how to improve them. Hotspot analysis and impact assessments were conducted by social and environmental life cycle assessment (LCA). The assessed green concrete represented not just the variety of geographic representation but also the product designs (three different slag contents) and the potential difference occurring from the corporate efforts, where four classes were introduced. The investigation of the social and environmental hotspots of the green concrete revealed a difference in the relation between the sustainability performance and steel slags. While the increased slag content resulted in worse social performance, the increase improved the environmental performance in all six investigated case countries. This trade-off between the social and environmental performance implied the limits of the sustainable product design and suggested the effectiveness of the supply chain management for improving the two sustainability performances for the green concrete.

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Section: Social Life Cycle Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trade-Off between the Social and Environmental Performance of Green Concrete: The Case of 6 Countries

2018

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“…As the investigation of existing sustainability assessments has been extensively conducted by several recent publications, these are chosen as a basis for the assessment of the research situation [33][34][35]. Guinée has provided an extensive meta-assessment of Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) studies in scientific literature including a comprehensive list of general recommendations and potential improvements that are lacking for existing studies and should be tackled in the LCSA assessment development [35].…”

Section: Properties Of Sustainability Assessment Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bio-Inspired Sustainability Assessment for Building Product Development—Concept and Case Study

et al. 2018

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Abstract:Technological advancement culminating in a globalized economy has brought tremendous improvements for mankind in manifold respects but comes at the cost of alienation from nature. Human activities nowadays are unsustainable and cause severe damage especially in terms of global depletion and destabilization of natural systems but also harm its own social resources. In this paper, a sustainability assessment method is developed based on a bio-inspired sustainability framework that has been developed in the project TRR 141-C01 "The biomimetic promise". It is aims at regaining the advantages of societal embeddedness in its environment through biological inspiration. The method is developed using a structured approach including requirement specification, description of the inventory models on bio-inspiration and sustainability assessment, creation of a bio-inspired sustainability assessment model and its validation. It is defined as an accompanying assessment for decision support, using a six-fold two-dimensional structure of social, economic and environmental functions and burdens. The method is applied and validated in 6 projects of TRR 141 and its applicability is exemplarily shown by the assessment of "Bio-flexi", a biobased and biodegradable natural fiber reinforced plastic composite for indoor cladding applications. Based on the findings of the application the assessment method itself is proposed to be advanced towards an adaptive structure and a consequent outlook is provided.

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“…Using a combination of LCA, social life cycle analysis (S-LCA), and life cycle costing (LCC) is recommended, even if harmonizing results across the three models is challenging (Klöpffer 2008;Curran 2012). For recent comprehensive reviews of S-LCA, see Petti et al (2016) and Wu et al (2014). The latter conclude that Bworkers^are the most researched stakeholder group.…”

Section: Life Cycle Sustainability Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There are no established standards for social life cycle assessment (Petti et al 2016). We followed the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)/Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) guidelines (UNEP/SETAC 2009) on subcategories and indicators for assessing social impacts (see Supplement 1 section 2 and Supplement 2 section 2, Electronic Supplementary Material), as these are common for performing such an analysis (see, e.g., Ciroth and Franze 2011).…”

Section: Goal Functional Unit System Boundaries and Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Using life cycle sustainability assessment to trade off sourcing strategies for humanitarian relief items

Kempen¹,

Spiliotopoulou²,

Stojanovski

et al. 2016

Int J Life Cycle Assess

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Purpose While interest in supply chain sustainability has risen over the past few years in academic and business worlds, very little research has been conducted on sustainability in humanitarian supply chains, specifically. This study aims to contribute to the development of the field by conducting a life cycle sustainability analysis (LCSA) of sourcing scenarios for a core relief item in a humanitarian supply chain. Methods This paper is structured according to the LCSA framework developed by Guinée et al. (Environ Sci Technol 45(1):90-96, 2011). The relief item analyzed is a kitchen set supplied by a UN agency. Environmental, social, and economic impacts of two sourcing scenarios for a kitchen set are mapped: one international and one local. Sources of data include interviews, company records, and online databases. Results are analyzed using the ReCiPe method to assess environmental impact and the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP)/Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) guidelines to assess social impact.Results and discussion We show how LCSA can be used to map the sustainability of two sourcing scenarios for kitchen sets in a humanitarian supply chain along triple bottom line dimensions. We report findings on sourcing scenarios for distribution to two refugee camps in Kenya: one from a supplier in India and one from a supplier in Kenya. We use an environmental life cycle analysis (LCA), a social LCA, and a life cycle costing (LCC) to analyze differences and similarities. We find that local sourcing is preferred over international sourcing on two out of the three sustainability dimensionsenvironmental and social impacts. Humanitarian organizations may further use this paper as a guideline to develop their own sustainability assessments of supply chain scenarios. Conclusions The results of our study provide a fresh, sustainability-focused perspective on the debate over international vs. local procurement. This paper is the first to apply LCSA to a humanitarian context. It also addresses a void in the sourcing literature by determining the sustainability impacts of different sourcing strategies. The study evaluates only two sourcing options and also uses a limited number of data sources.

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Systematic literature review in social life cycle assessment

Cited by 153 publications

References 55 publications

Trade-Off between the Social and Environmental Performance of Green Concrete: The Case of 6 Countries

Trade-Off between the Social and Environmental Performance of Green Concrete: The Case of 6 Countries

Bio-Inspired Sustainability Assessment for Building Product Development—Concept and Case Study

Using life cycle sustainability assessment to trade off sourcing strategies for humanitarian relief items

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