Social Life Cycle Assessment

---

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has become the benchmark method for assessing the environmental impacts of products, services, or processes at each stage of the life cycle (Raw and secondary material extraction; Transformation; Transport; Use; Recycling and Disposal).

But what about the social impacts? This is where Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) complements LCA, an approach increasingly used to assess the real and potential, both positive and negative, impacts on the social and societal aspects of an organisation, from the extraction of raw materials to the final disposal of the product or service. The aim of this approach is to identify the "hotspots" in the product's life cycle and improvement options, establish new production and consumption methods, certify and communicate social impacts, as well as support strategic planning and the development of public policies.

S-LCA is based on the guidelines of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to assess the associated social risks and benefits.

The guidelines established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) provide a general framework for S-LCA, based on the principles of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) applied to social aspects. They are complemented by the ISO 14040-44 standards, which define the principles and requirements for conducting an LCA.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) also provide a global framework for assessing the social performance of organisations and are closely linked to corporate social responsibility. By integrating the SDGs into Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA), companies can align their social objectives with global sustainable development goals, thus contributing to a more just and sustainable society.

Social themes

---

The stakeholders involved in Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) are quite diverse. They are defined as individuals or collectives (groups or organizations) who are actively or passively affected by a decision or project; that is, whose interests may be positively or negatively impacted as a result of its execution (or non-execution).

Among them, we find workers/employees, local communities, value chain actors such as suppliers, consumers, society as a whole, and even children.

Each of these stakeholders has specific concerns regarding the social and societal aspects of organisations. The social themes addressed in Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) are broad and include aspects such as health and safety, human rights, equal opportunities, community engagement, and many more. Each theme contains specific impact subcategories that allow for the precise evaluation of the social implications of an organisation's activities.

The stages of a Social Life Cycle Assessment

---

To successfully carry out a social LCA, several steps must be followed:

Define the goal and scope of the study, taking into account the relevant stakeholders.

Select the relevant social indicators and develop tailored questionnaires.

Gather quantitative, qualitative, and semi-qualitative data from stakeholders.

Analyse the results obtained and interpret them to formulate recommendations for continuous improvement.

Present the results in a clear and transparent manner, highlighting strengths and areas for improvement based on a scoring system (performance score).

Social LCA for the cocoa supply chain in Côte d’Ivoire

---

To illustrate this, let us consider the example of the results obtained from a Social Life Cycle Assessment (Social LCA) conducted to evaluate decision-making in the cocoa supply chain in Côte d’Ivoire.

The findings of this Social LCA highlighted an improvement in the social well-being of farmers, primarily attributed to various stakeholder initiatives. These actions included projects aimed at enhancing general infrastructure, direct purchasing from farmers, and diverse training programmes.

This study demonstrates the importance of Social LCA in decision-making and emphasises the need to consider social, economic, and environmental dimensions in an integrated manner. In the absence of a reference scenario for cocoa cultivation in Côte d’Ivoire within existing Social LCA databases, the relevant social themes were identified through surveys conducted with stakeholders.

Additionally, a category addressing environmental aspects and climate change was introduced at the level of the local community to better integrate environmental and social concerns, which are particularly significant in the agricultural sector.