Social life cycle assessment : state of the art and challenges for product policy support

Social welfare is considered one of the main development goals of modern society. Understanding and assessing what could improve or undermine well-being is a key element in public policies, aiming at improving social and economic benefit while reducing both social and environmental impacts. The appraisal of social impacts and benefit is very difficult and controversial as cultural elements, different values, and lifestyles may affect the way social issues are perceived. Regarding product policies, social impacts along supply chains are increasingly assessed by different stakeholders, such as governments, businesses and NGO's. To assess impact along supply chains, Life cycle-based methodologies have been developed over time. Life cycle assessment (LCA) considers mainly environmental impacts along supply chains, from extraction of raw materials to end-of-life of products. Similarly, social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) integrates traditional life cycle assessment methodological steps while having social impacts as focus. Coupling the assessment of environmental and socio-economic issues may support more comprehensive sustainability assessment of impacts, benefits, and related trade-offs.