Social life cycle assessment revisited article pdf available in sustainability 67. Psilca a product social impact life cycle assessment. Guidelines for social life cycle assessment of products. Life cycle assessment methodology the definition of a sector. The major stages in a life cycle are raw materials acquisition, manufacturing, consumer usereusemaintenance, and.
In iso 14040 1997 life cycle improvement assessment is no longer regarded as a phase on its own, but rather as having an influence throughout the whole lca methodology. This report, guidance on organizational life cycle assessment, is a milestone in measuring and improving environmental impacts and ef. Life tires angela farina1, mariachiara zanett1, ezio santagata1, gianandrea blengini1 and michele lanotte1 1 department of environment, land and infrastructure engineering, politecnico di torino corso duca degli abruzzi, 24, 10129 torino, italy. Life cycle assessment lca is emerging as one of the most. Objectives analyse and evaluate social responsibility indicators that have already been presented by the scientific community or by independent organizations establish a social impact pathway as evaluation system for the slcia phase implement a causeeffect chain between the inventory indicators. Life cycle assessment lca, also known as life cycle analysis, and cradletograve analysis is a technique to assess environmental impacts associated with all the stages of the life cycle of a commercial product, process, or service, e. Note on life cycle analysis university of michigan. The site is intended as an open resource for students and the novice lca practitioner. Pdf lifecycle assessment and the environmental impact of. Social life cycle assessment in the course, the trainer will first briefly introduce the method of slca and present different approaches, illustrated by examples. This text presents the life cycle framework as a means of organizing thought about this task from health district down to neighbourhood levels. Lca provides an adequate instrument for environmental decision support.
Consequential life cycle assessment modelling a collection of examples about this site this is a collection of examples illustrating how to model consequential product systems in life cycle assessment lca as it is recommended in the iso 14040 series. Lifecycle assessment lca a guide to approaches, experiences and information sources there are great expectations for lca. In many processes more than one product is produced joint production, in such cases it is necessary to divide the environmental impacts from the process between the products. Global guidance principles for life cycle assessment databases. The future of building life cycle assessment in practice summary as the architectural and construction industries increasingly emphasize sustainability, more comprehensive methods are being developed to evaluate and reduce environmental impacts by buildings. Similarly, social life cycle assessment slca integrates traditional life cycle assessment methodological steps while having social impacts as focus. Environmental life cycle assessment elca is a technique developed to assess the. A conceptual framework for impact assessment within slca. Inventory guidelines and principles, epa600r92245, and lca101 from the lcaccess, website. Reference bag is a low density polyethylene ldpe bag, while long life polypropylene pp and a bag from. Presentation for the lcm2005 conference, barcelona, 2005. Pdf guidance on organizational life cycle assessment. Guidelines for social life cycle assessment of products 5 executive summary the guidelines for social life cycle assessment of products provides a map, a skeleton and a. Further, it will be demonstrated how social impacts can be assessed and calculated along entire product life cycles using lca software and databases.
The study will be realized in the framework of the road testing of the unepsetac guidance on organizational life cycle assessment. Resources worlds fastest building life cycle assessment. Weidema b p, pizzol m, schmidt j, thoma g 2018 attributional or consequential life cycle assessment. This document is an update and merger of two previous epa documents on lca life cycle assessment. This is a collection of examples illustrating how to model consequential product systems in life cycle assessment lca as it is recommended in the iso 14040 series. A social life cycle assessment slca is a method that can be used to assess the social and sociological aspects of products, their actual and potential positive as well as negative impacts along the life cycle. Reliable lca performance is crucial to achieve a lifecycle economy. Pdf social and environmental life cycle assessment selca. Schau, marzia traverso and matthias finkbeiner abstract sustainability is an international issue with increasing concern and becomes a crucial driver for the industry in international competition. Life cycle assessment lca philipp schepelmann philipp. Lifecycle assessment lca, also known as lifecycle analysis, and cradletograve analysis is a technique to assess environmental impacts associated with all the stages of the lifecycle of a commercial product, process, or service, e. Methodology development should reflect demands from the intended users.
Mar 20, 2009 methodology development should reflect demands from the intended users. Unlike the majority of previous life cycle assessment lca studies on pavements, our work includes a detailed analysis of the operating, or use, phase of the life cycle. In this paper a life cycle assessment study of three types of grocery bags is presented. American center for life cycle assessment life cycle assessment lca is a methodtool for the estimation of the environmental and human health impacts that are connected with a product with a service with a process with a technology over the whole life cycle from cradle to grave. The impact assessment of campus buildings based on a life cycle. Nov 28, 2011 life cycle assessment it is a technique that tries to identify, measure and characterize di erent potential environmental impacts associated to each one of the stages of the life cycle of a product 10. Life cycle assessment lca is the calculation and evaluation of the environmentally relevant inputs and outputs and the potential environmental impacts of the life cycle of a product, material or service sabs iso, 1998. In this study a methodology was therefore developed for the assessment of two main. A topdown and bottomup approach was applied to merge globally relevant social. Psilca a product social impact life cycle assessment database. The following document provides an introductory overview of life cycle assessment lca and describes the general uses and major components of lca. Life cycle assessment lca is the calculation and evaluation. Research open access life cycle approach to sustainability. Social life cycle assessment lca allows identification of key issues, assessing, and telling the story of social conditions in the production, use.
Social life cycle assessment slca integrates traditional life cycle assessment by having social aspects as focus. Life cycle assessment 1 life cycle assessment lca is a tool for the systematic evaluation of the environmental impacts of a product through all stages of its life cycle. In this learning block, you will continue building upon your lca knowledge by exploring inventory. Different from methods incorporating type iii characterization models, another lca modeling approach, life cycle attribute assessment lcaa, is also discussed. To establish a comprehensive assessment model that is easy to promote, we combine social wtp with the ahp. The guidelines for social life cycle assessment of products. Pdf lifecycle assessment and the environmental impact. Social life cycle assessment standardization of mid. Therefore, an organizational life cycle assessment olca study will be conducted as a test in one emmaus community in switzerland. Weidema b p 2005 the integration of economic and social aspects in life cycle impact assessment.
As a systematic tool, lca analyses and assesses environmental impacts. The results from the inventory analysis and impact assessment are summarized during the interpretation phase. Coupling the assessment of environmental and socioeconomic issues may support more comprehensive sustainability assessment of impacts, benefits, and related tradeoffs. In the last year, we have created a new model to quantify the life cycle carbon emissions of pavements from manufacturing to disposal. Guidelines for social life cycle assessment of products 2. An evaluative process of assessing the effects of the environmental findings identified in the inventory component. Conducting a life cycle assessment lca there are four main phases of the lca process. A recently developed method for social life cycle assessment slca. Phase of interpretation life cycle interpretation is a systematic technique to identify, quantify, check, and evaluate information from the results of the life cycle inventory andor the life cycle impact assessment. Comparative life cycle assessment and social life cycle assessment of used polyethylene terephthalate pet bottles in mauritius. Relevance and feasibility of social life cycle assessment.
International journal of life cycle assessment 111. Tracking down social impacts of products with social life cycle. This looks at the extraction and processing of raw materials, manufacturing, distribution, use, reuse, maintenance, recycling and. Mar 15, 2015 phase of interpretation life cycle interpretation is a systematic technique to identify, quantify, check, and evaluate information from the results of the life cycle inventory andor the life cycle impact assessment. International journal of life cycle assessment, 181, 155171.
In the life cycle impact assessment lcia, the product or production system is examined from an environmental perspective using category indicators. Mapping these questions of relevance and feasibility is thus a way to facilitate a higher degree of relevance of the developed methodology. The advantages of impact assessment and life cycle assessment lca have been highly documented based on the amount of published academia in the recent years. One click lca, the worldleading construction lifecycle assessment and costing software, announces integration with climate earth, the leading provider of digital epds. Social life cycle assessment indices and indicators to monitor the. In fact, sustainability assessment requires that environmental, social and economic impacts and benefit are taken into account. At the european level, the parliament has suggested that the commission develop a framework for an integrated lifecycleoriented product policy. Hence, the iso standard refers to life cycle assessment not life cycle analysis. Evaluation of environmental impacts in life cycle assessment, division of technology, industry and economics dtie, production and consumption unit, paris. Assessing the needs of populations is a prerequisite for the planning and delivery of effective health services. Pdf social life cycle assessment revisited researchgate. The impact assessment should address both ecological and human health impacts, as well as social, cultural, and economic impacts. In the first life cycle assessment learning block, you learned how to set up an lca study by defining the goal and scope.
Assessing health need using the life cycle framework by. The word assessment was preferred over analysis since it was felt that an analysis is quantitative in nature while an assessment allows for a broader set of information. Life cycle assessmentit does not consider economic issues, neither social 11. This recent approach towards tracking the environmental impact of a specific product or process has been manipulated to better suit each and every need. The improvement of a quantitative implementation of slca and its interpretation step is the aim of traverso et al. This unique research was conducted by bionova ltd one click lca and sponsored by.
The major stages in a life cycle are raw materials acquisition, manufacturing, consumer usereusemaintenance, and recycle waste management. For the emerging area of social life cycle assessment slca, several. Life cycle assessment it is a technique that tries to identify, measure and characterize di erent potential environmental impacts associated to each one of the stages of the life cycle of a product 10. Aia guide to building life cycle assessment in practice. Welcome to the socially engaged design academy seda block on life cycle assessment phase 2.
The set is part of a contextspecific social life cycle assessment framework. Social impacts over the life cycle are relatively new, with fewer data sources available. The iso standard for life cycle assessment iso 14044 is unclear on whether it allows substitution or not. Social life cycle assessment slca life cycle initiative. Goals and scoping3 the scoping step determines which processes will be included, which environmental concerns will be included. Course objectives understand the key concepts in lca and be able to solve simple lca problems.
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