ABSTRACT
Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) is a relatively new technique enabling the measurement of social impacts of products along their life cycle (cradle-to-grave approach). Currently, the most recognized tool for S-LCA is the framework developed by the Life Cycle Initiative of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) in 2009 (UNEP-SETAC, 2009). Though the framework encompasses a wide range of social impacts on different stakeholder groups, most applications in practice address the stakeholder “workers” and work-related social issues such as occupational health and safety or social benefits. This underlines the importance of ergonomics for life cycle sustainability in general and S-LCA in particular. As a new approach, S-LCA is considered a still immature management tool that needs to be tested and further developed. The aim of this chapter is to illustrate difficulties faced by S-LCA practitioners since the publication of the UNEP-SETAC framework and to propose possible solutions. For this purpose, 25 case studies on various products in the manufacturing industry were analyzed. After a short introduction and an outline of the UNEP-SETAC (2009) framework, the challenges in the current S-LCA practice observed in case studies and leading to reduced rigor and comparability of results are presented. Finally, three areas of improvement are discussed: standardization, simplification to improve feasibility, and methodology refinement to improve validity. These possible solutions, along with recommendations for future research suggested in the conclusion, are expected to support overcoming the initial difficulties of S-LCA.
