Lesson 4 of 5advanced

Introduction to Social Life Cycle Assessment

Extend your LCA practice to include social and socioeconomic impacts—understanding frameworks, indicators, and applications of Social LCA.

25 minUpdated Jan 15, 2025

Prerequisites:

what-is-lca

Environmental Life Cycle Assessment tells us about ecological impacts, but sustainability has three pillars: environmental, economic, and social. Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) extends the life cycle approach to evaluate social and socioeconomic impacts of products and services throughout their value chain.

Consider a smartphone's supply chain:

Mining: Cobalt extraction in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Manufacturing: Electronics assembly in East Asia
Retail: Sales and customer service globally
End-of-life: E-waste processing, often in developing countries

Each stage involves workers, communities, and social systems. Environmental LCA captures carbon emissions and resource use—but what about child labor in mining, working conditions in factories, or health impacts on e-waste processors?

S-LCA complements environmental LCA to provide a more complete sustainability picture.

The S-LCA Framework

Guidelines and Standards

Social LCA is guided by:

UNEP/SETAC Guidelines for Social Life Cycle Assessment of Products (2009, updated 2020)

The primary reference document, providing:

Framework and methodology
Stakeholder categories
Impact categories and subcategories
Implementation guidance

ISO 14040/14044

Environmental LCA standards provide the conceptual foundation. S-LCA adapts these principles for social impacts.

Stakeholder Categories

S-LCA organizes impacts around five stakeholder groups:

Stakeholder	Description	Example Concerns
Workers	Employees in the supply chain	Working hours, wages, safety, discrimination
Local community	Communities where activities occur	Land rights, employment, health impacts
Society	Broader society and public	Corruption, technology development, conflict
Consumers	Users of the product	Health and safety, transparency, feedback
Value chain actors	Business partners (suppliers, etc.)	Fair competition, payment practices

Impact Subcategories

Each stakeholder category contains multiple subcategories:

Workers:

Freedom of association and collective bargaining
Child labor
Fair salary
Working hours
Forced labor
Equal opportunities/discrimination
Health and safety
Social benefits/security

Local Community:

Access to material resources
Access to immaterial resources
Delocalization and migration
Cultural heritage
Safe and healthy living conditions
Respect of indigenous rights
Community engagement
Local employment
Secure living conditions

Society:

Public commitments to sustainability
Contribution to economic development
Prevention and mitigation of conflicts
Technology development
Corruption

Consumers:

Health and safety
Feedback mechanism
Consumer privacy
Transparency
End-of-life responsibility

Value Chain Actors:

Fair competition
Promoting social responsibility
Supplier relationships
Respect of intellectual property rights

Unlike environmental LCA where impact categories are relatively standardized, S-LCA impact categories are still evolving. Studies may use different subsets depending on context and data availability.

S-LCA Methodology

Phase 1: Goal and Scope Definition

Similar to environmental LCA, but with social-specific considerations:

Functional unit: Same as environmental LCA—the quantified function of the product system.

System boundary: Defines which life cycle stages and activities to include. May focus on "hotspot" stages where social impacts are most significant.

Stakeholder selection: Which stakeholders are relevant? All five categories or focus on most material ones?

Impact subcategories: Which subcategories to assess? Determined by goal, stakeholder relevance, and data availability.

Phase 2: Inventory Analysis

Collecting social data differs significantly from environmental LCA:

Data types:

Quantitative: Worker hours, wages, injury rates
Semi-quantitative: Ratings, scores, indexes
Qualitative: Descriptions, policies, certifications

Data sources:

Company reports and audits
Industry statistics
Country-level indicators (ILO, World Bank)
NGO reports and certifications
Site visits and interviews
Social hotspot databases

Measurement approaches:

Approach	Description	Example
Performance Reference Points	Compare against benchmarks	Wage vs. living wage threshold
Inventory data	Raw quantitative data	Worker hours per product
Risk assessment	Likelihood of social issues	Country/sector risk scores
Characterization	Convert to impact scores	Aggregate indicators

Phase 3: Impact Assessment

Converting inventory data to impact scores is less standardized than environmental LCIA:

Type I Indicators: Binary or categorical

"Is there a policy against child labor?" (Yes/No)
Certification status

Type II Indicators: Quantitative

Average hourly wage
Lost-time injury rate
Percentage of women in management

Aggregation challenges:

How to weight different subcategories?
How to aggregate across life cycle stages?
How to handle qualitative data?

Phase 4: Interpretation

Similar to environmental LCA:

Identify significant issues (hotspots)
Evaluate completeness and consistency
Draw conclusions and recommendations
Acknowledge limitations

Data Sources and Tools

Developed by New Earth, the SHDB provides:

Country- and sector-specific risk data
Coverage of 57 sectors, 244 countries
Integration with economic input-output models
Accessible via software (SimaPro, openLCA)

GreenDelta's database providing:

Social indicators linked to processes
Compatible with openLCA
Country- and sector-specific data
Worker hours as activity variable

UNEP/SETAC Methodological Sheets

Detailed guidance on measuring each subcategory:

Indicator definitions
Data sources
Measurement methods
Interpretation guidance

Other Resources

Resource	Type	Access
ILO Statistics	Country labor data	Free
World Bank Data	Development indicators	Free
Global Slavery Index	Forced labor risk	Free
SA8000 Standard	Social certification	Certification bodies
B Corp Assessment	Company social performance	Assessment tool

Practical Challenges

Data Availability

Social data is often:

Site-specific (not easily aggregated)
Proprietary or sensitive
Inconsistently measured
Difficult to obtain from deep supply chains

Strategy: Start with sector and country risk data, then collect site-specific data for hotspots.

Comparability

Unlike environmental impacts with common units (kg CO₂ eq), social impacts lack:

Universal measurement scales
Established characterization factors
Agreed aggregation methods

Strategy: Report disaggregated results by subcategory; use benchmarks for context.

Subjectivity

Social impacts involve value judgments:

What's a "fair" wage?
How to balance different stakeholder interests?
Which impacts matter most?

Strategy: Document assumptions, involve stakeholders, present multiple perspectives.

Supply Chain Complexity

Deep supply chains make data collection challenging:

Tier 1 suppliers may be known
Tier 2+ often opaque
Social conditions vary significantly

Strategy: Use risk-based approach to prioritize; engage suppliers on transparency.

Applications of S-LCA

Supply Chain Risk Assessment

Identify high-risk stages and suppliers:

Map social risks across the value chain
Prioritize due diligence efforts
Support supplier engagement programs

Product Development

Consider social impacts in design:

Source from regions with better social conditions
Design for local manufacturing
Consider end-of-life worker impacts

Sustainability Reporting

Complement environmental metrics:

Social indicators for integrated reports
SDG alignment and contribution
Stakeholder communication

Inform CSR strategy:

Identify material social issues
Benchmark against industry
Track improvement over time

Policy and Standards

Support standards development:

Inform due diligence requirements
Support fair trade and certification schemes
Guide public procurement

Integration with Environmental LCA

Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA)

LCSA combines:

Environmental LCA (E-LCA)
Social LCA (S-LCA)
Life Cycle Costing (LCC)

Providing comprehensive triple-bottom-line assessment.

Practical Integration

Sequential approach: Conduct E-LCA and S-LCA separately, then combine findings.

Parallel approach: Collect both datasets simultaneously, interpret together.

Integrated modeling: Use common system boundaries and functional units, present combined results.

Trade-offs

Integration reveals trade-offs:

Lower environmental impact option may have worse labor conditions
Local production may increase environmental impact but improve community employment
Decision-makers must weigh across dimensions

Getting Started with S-LCA

Entry Points

Start with screening: Use country/sector risk databases to identify hotspots
Focus on priority issues: Don't try to assess all subcategories at once
Leverage existing data: Start with available audits, certifications, reports
Build on E-LCA: Use existing system models, add social dimension

Recommended Approach for Beginners

Read the UNEP/SETAC Guidelines (2020)
Explore SHDB or PSILCA datasets
Conduct a pilot study on a simple supply chain
Start with 2-3 stakeholders, 5-6 subcategories
Document methodology and limitations clearly

Key Takeaways

S-LCA extends life cycle thinking to social and socioeconomic impacts
The framework organizes impacts by five stakeholder categories
Data collection and impact assessment are less standardized than environmental LCA
Start with risk-based screening, then collect detailed data for hotspots
Integration with E-LCA enables comprehensive sustainability assessment
Acknowledge data limitations and value judgments transparently

What's Next?

The final lesson in this track covers system boundary approaches for end-of-life allocation—including cut-off, substitution, and circular footprint methods.