NDLI: Social organizational LCA (SOLCA)—a new approach for implementing social LCA

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Martínez Blanco, Julia Lehmann, Annekatrin Chang, Ya Ju Finkbeiner, Matthias
Copyright Year	2015
Abstract	Current product social life cycle assessment (SLCA) addresses social aspects from a life cycle perspective, but it is not yet broadly implemented in practice. We propose a new organizational perspective to boost SLCA—the social organizational LCA (SOLCA). The paper answers four guiding questions: Why do we need SOLCA? How can we apply it? How can its implementation benefit from existing experience? Which are the foreseen limitations?First, challenges of SLCA which may be overcome by an organizational perspective are identified, and potential solutions are described. An analysis of the indicators proposed by SLCA is conducted. Second, first ideas for a conceptual framework for SOLCA are developed. The two underlying methodologies: the guidelines for SLCA of products and the guidance on organizational LCA (OLCA)—which adapts product LCA to the organizational perspective—were reviewed, compared and adapted to a social organizational perspective. Third, different implementation pathways were identified, showing how SOLCA could be applied in practice by considering different levels of organizations’ experiences with social and environmental assessments.Existing SLCA case studies do not really evaluate the social performance of products. From the 189 indicators proposed in SLCA, only eight refer to the product level, while 127 and 69 refer to the organizational and country level, respectively—including overlaps and according to the methodological sheets. This fact clearly favors an organizational approach to social LCA. SOLCA may streamline allocation, data collection, and application in practice. The conceptual framework for SOLCA is focused on scope and inventory, which were found to differ most from SLCA and OLCA; all relevant steps like definition of unit of analysis or multi-functionality are addressed. Three SOLCA implementation pathways are proposed. Existing experience of organizations in social organizational approaches —like Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) or product SLCA— and environmental approaches —like environmental management systems (EMS) or OLCA— can be used as starting points as they can provide useful information on the organization´s structure, value chain, etc.SOLCA helps to overcome some major challenges of SLCA and thus is a promising approach for putting it into practice. The frameworks of SLCA and OLCA can be integrated into SOLCA, and existing experience from organizations can be used for implementing it. However, new challenges arise. This includes potential difficulties for primary data collection in complex organizations with many different sites or the difficulty to distribute or aggregate social aspects within the organization. Further development and testing of SOLCA is recommended.
Starting Page	1586
Ending Page	1599
Page Count	14
File Format	PDF
ISSN	09483349
Journal	The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment
Volume Number	20
Issue Number	11
e-ISSN	16147502
Language	English
Publisher	Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Publisher Date	2015-09-04
Publisher Place	Berlin, Heidelberg
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	CSR OLCA Organizational level Product level SLCA Social assessment Unit of analysis Environment Environmental Economics Environmental Engineering/Biotechnology Environmental Chemistry
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Environmental Science

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

Integrating participatory approaches into social life cycle assessment: the SLCA participatory approach

Scoping organizational LCA—challenges and solutions

Revisiting the role of LCA and SLCA in the transition towards sustainable production and consumption

Social aspects for sustainability assessment of technologies—challenges for social life cycle assessment (SLCA)

Functional unit and product functionality—addressing increase in consumption and demand for functionality in sustainability assessment with LCA

Defining the baseline in social life cycle assessment

Potential hotspots identified by social LCA–Part 2: Reflections on a study of a complex product

Relevance and feasibility of social life cycle assessment from a company perspective

A screening level life cycle assessment of the ABB EU 2000 air handling unit

Social organizational LCA (SOLCA)—a new approach for implementing social LCA

Similar Documents

Integrating participatory approaches into social life cycle assessment: the SLCA participatory approach

Scoping organizational LCA—challenges and solutions

Revisiting the role of LCA and SLCA in the transition towards sustainable production and consumption

Social aspects for sustainability assessment of technologies—challenges for social life cycle assessment (SLCA)

Functional unit and product functionality—addressing increase in consumption and demand for functionality in sustainability assessment with LCA

Defining the baseline in social life cycle assessment

Potential hotspots identified by social LCA–Part 2: Reflections on a study of a complex product

Relevance and feasibility of social life cycle assessment from a company perspective

A screening level life cycle assessment of the ABB EU 2000 air handling unit

Social organizational LCA (SOLCA)—a new approach for implementing social LCA