Abstract
Purpose
Social Organisational Life Cycle Assessment (SO-LCA) is a methodology to evaluate the social and socio-economic aspects of the activities of a whole organisation (or a portion of it) from a life cycle perspective. Although introduced in 2015 and outlined in the Guidelines for Social Life Cycle Assessment of Products and Organisations 2020, SO-LCA is still poorly applied. This work is an attempt to implement SO-LCA and analyse the correlations between Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) and SO-LCA.
Method
SO-LCA was implemented starting from an existing S-LCA case study. The social performance of the companies involved in the supply chain of the analysed product line was assessed through Subcategory Assessment Method considering Workers, Local Community, Consumers and Value Chain Actors stakeholders. Then, the emerged correlations from the S-LCA and SO-LCA case studies were discussed.
Results and discussion
SO-LCA and S-LCA have many similarities on a methodological level, although they are different with regard to the scope of the analysis. This work shows that although the distinction between the two methodologies is clear from a theoretical point of view, when implementing the existing differences are blurred. Indeed, as expected, SO-LCA results might not be different from those of S-LCA when the following conditions are met: the product portfolio includes the product already assessed in an S-LCA case study; the defined system boundaries are the same as well as the organisations involved in the considered processes, and the same Reference Scale Approach is used to assess both S-LCA and SO-LCA.
Conclusions
SO-LCA results should be verified when the study is conducted with different methodological choices compared to those of the previous S-LCA case study. Further development should give attention on understanding how and to what extent a different study setup could bring to results different from those of S-LCA.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
AA1000 (2008) AccountAbility Assurance Standard. Accountability UK. ISBN: 978-1-901693-56-0
D’Eusanio M, Lehmann A, Finkbeiner M, Petti L (2020) Social Organizational Life Cycle Assessment: an approach for identification of relevant subcategories for wine production in Italy. Int J Life Cycle Assess 25:1119–1132. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-020-01746-4
D’Eusanio M, Serreli M, Zamagni A, Petti L (2018) Assessment of social dimension of a jar of honey: a methodological outline. J Clean Prod 199:503–517. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.07.157
D’Eusanio M, Tragnone BM, Petti L (2021) Social Organizational Life Cycle Assessment (SO-LCA): un caso studio focalizzato sulla comunità locale. IX Convegno dell’Associazione Rete Italiana LCA. La sostenibilità della LCA tra sfide globali e competititività delle organizzazioni. Cortina d’Ampezzo, 9–11 dicembre, 2020; 412-418. ISBN: 978-88-8286-416-3
D’Eusanio M, Zamagni A, Petti L (2019) Social sustainability and supply chain management: methods and tools. J Clean Prod 235:178–189. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.06.323
Finkbeiner M, Schau EM, Lehmann A, Traverso M (2010) Towards Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment Sustainability 2:3309–3322. https://doi.org/10.3390/su2103309
GRI (2021) Global Reporting Initiative. Reporting Guidelines. Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Grubert E (2018) Rigor in social life cycle assessment: improving the scientific grounding of SLCA. Int J Life Cycle Assess 23:481–491. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-016-1117-6
Guinée JB, Heijungs R, Huppes G et al (2011) Life Cycle Assessment: past, present, and future. Environ Sci Technol 45:90–96. https://doi.org/10.1021/es101316v
Huertas-Valdivia I, Ferrari AM, Settembre-Blundo D, García-Muiña FE (2020) Social Life-Cycle Assessment: a review by bibliometric analysis. Sustainability 12:6211. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12156211
ISO (2006a). ISO 14040:2006. Environmental management: Life Cycle Assessment — principles and framework. International Organisation for Standardisation, Geneva, Switzerland
ISO (2006b). ISO 14044:2006. Environmental management: Life Cycle Assessment — requirements and guidelines. International Organisation for Standardisation, Geneva, Switzerland
ISO (2010) ISO 26000:2010. Guidance on social sustainability. International Organisation for Standardisation, Geneva, Switzerland
ISO/TS (2014). ISO/TS 14072:2014. Environmental management life cycle assessment requirements and guidelines for organizational life cycle assessment. International Organization for Standardization, Geneva, Switzerland
Jørgensen A (2013) Social LCA—a way ahead? Int J Life Cycle Assess 18:296–299. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-012-0517-5
Koplin J, Seuring S, Mesterharm M (2007) Incorporating sustainability into supply management in the automotive industry — the case of the Volkswagen AG. J Clean Prod 15:1053–1062. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2006.05.024
Martínez-Blanco J, Finkbeiner M (2018) Organisational LCA. In: Huaschild MZ et al. (eds.) Life Cycle Assessment. Theory and Practice, Springer International Publishing AG
Martínez-Blanco J, Lehmann A, Chang Y-J, Finkbeiner M (2015) Social organizational LCA (SOLCA)—a new approach for implementing social LCA. Int J Life Cycle Assess 20:1586–1599. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-015-0960-1
Moltesen A, Bonou A, Wangel A, Bozhilova-Kisheva KP (2018) Social Life Cycle Assessment: an Introduction. In: Hauschild M., Rosenbaum R., Olsen S. (eds) Life Cycle Assessment. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56475-3_16
Olsen SI, Borup M, Andersen PD (2018) Future-oriented LCA. In: Huaschild M. Z. et al. (eds.) Life Cycle Assessment. Theory and Practice, Springer International Publishing AG. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56475-3_21
Parent J, Cucuzzella C, Revéret JP (2013) Revisiting the role of LCA and SLCA in the transition towards sustainable production and consumption. Int J Life Cycle Assess 18:1642–1652. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-012-0485-9
Petti L, Sanchez Ramirez PK, Traverso M, Ugaya CML (2018) An Italian tomato “Cuore di Bue” case study: challenges and benefits using subcategory assessment method for social life cycle assessment. Int J Life Cycle Assess 23:569–580. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-016-1175-9
Ramos Huarachi DA, Piekarski CM, Puglieri FN, de Francisco AC (2020) Past and future of Social Life Cycle Assessment: historical evolution and research trends. J Clean Prod 264:121506. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.121506
SA 8000 (2014) Social Accountability International (SAI), “SA8000 Standard”
Sanchez Ramirez PK, Petti L, Haberland NT, Ugaya CML (2014) Subcategory assessment method for social life cycle assessment. Part 1: methodological framework. Int J Life Cycle Assess 19:1515–1523. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-014-0761-y
Schwab K (2015) The global competitiveness report 2015–2016. World Economic Forum, Geneva
Sulewski P, Kłoczko-Gajewska A, Sroka W (2018) Relations between agri-environmental, economic and social dimensions of farms’ sustainability. Sustainability 10:4629. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10124629
Tsalis T, Avramidou A, Nikolaou IE (2017) A social LCA framework to assess the corporate social profile of companies: insights from a case study. J Clean Prod 164:1665–1676. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.07.003
UN (2015) United Nations General Assembly. Transforming our world: the 2030. Resolution 25 September 2015 A/RES/70/1
UNDP (2016) United Nations Development Programme. Human development reports: human development report 2015. Human Development for Everyone
UNDP (2010) Human Development Reports: Human development report 2010. The Real Wealth of Nations: Pathways to Human Development
UNEP (2020) United Nations Environment Programme. Guidelines for Social Life Cycle Assessment of Products and Organizations 2020. Benoît Norris C, Traverso M, Neugebauer S, Ekener E, Schaubroeck T, Russo Garrido S, Berger M, Valdivia S, Lehmann A, Finkbeiner M, Arcese G. (eds.). United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
UNEP/SETAC (2009) United Nations Environment Programme-society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. Guidelines for Social Life Cycle Assessment of Products. France. ISBN: 978–92–807–3021–0
UNEP/SETAC (2013) United Nations Environment Programme-society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. The Methodological Sheets of Sub-categories of Impact in a Social Life Cycle Assessment. France
UNEP/SETAC (2015) United Nations Environment Programme-Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. Guidelines on Organizational Life Cycle Assessment. France
Valente C, Brekke A, Modahl IA (2018) Testing environmental and social indicators for bio refineries: bioethanol and biochemical production. Int J Life Cycle Assess 23:581–596
Acknowledgements
This study was partially founded by Programma Operativo Nazionale (PON) FSE-FESR Ricerca e Innovazione 2014–2020 (Italian National Operational Programme (PON) ESF-ERDF Research and Innovation 2014–2020). The authors would like to thank Apicoltura Luca Finocchio for its involvement and availability in data collection.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Communicated by Marzia Traverso.
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
D’Eusanio, M., Tragnone, B.M. & Petti, L. Social Organisational Life Cycle Assessment and Social Life Cycle Assessment: different twins? Correlations from a case study. Int J Life Cycle Assess 27, 173–187 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-021-01996-w
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-021-01996-w