Page 117 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

5.4 The social assessment—S-LCA 113
activity variables for use and unit procedures contained; preparation for collecting data and
detailed description about which data need to be collected and to which impact category the
data belongs; and the confirmation of all stakeholders involved in life cycle of products and
the types of comments needed.
The final aim of an S-LCA is to accelerate the development of social conditions and social
economic performance of products in the whole life cycle for stakeholders. Another potential
purpose (promoting the improvement of social economic conditions, encouraging stake-
holders and decision-makers, having conversations with government officials) of using
S-LCA is also very important, and it also should encourage stakeholders to participate in
the process of goal and scope definition.

5.4.3.2 Impact assessment
The social life cycle impact assessment (S-LCIA) is the third phase of an S-LCA. The pur-
pose of the S-LCIA is to integrate the inventory data into sub classification and classification,
and to help to understand the magnitude and significance of the data collected from the stage
of inventory analysis by using extraneous information (Benoıˆt et al., 2009).
The phases of the S-LCIA consist of three mandatory steps, put forward by ISO 14044
(2006) and aim at LCIA. The inventory data can be traced by the related social relationship
and the social economic impact can be defined. The three steps are: choose impact classifica-
tion, characterization methods, and characterization models (classification); associate the in-
ventory data with the specific subclassification and impact classification of S-LCIA; and
confirm the result of computational subclassification indexes (characterization) (ISO, 2006c).
(1) Choice of impact classification, subclassification, and characterization models. The choice
(impact classification, subclassification, and characterization models) should be kept
consistent with the objective and scope of the research. The impact classification is the
logical collection of the S-LCA results, related to the social interests of the stakeholders
and the decision-makers. In LCA, two kinds of impact classification have been defined,
which are end-point form and mid-point form. The end-point form seeks for
environmental damage on behalf of the field of protection (such as biology, natural
environment, or human health); the aim of the mid-point form is the environmental
problems among the inventory and the field of protection (Anon, 1993). The impact
assessment shows the causal chain flowing from the inventory to the mid-point indicator,
and evaluates the final result by extending the causal model.
Similar to an LCA, there are two social impact categories put forward in an S-LCA. The
first category integrates the results of the subclassifications into the interest subjects
corresponding to stakeholders (like government); the other category presents the
modulization of the results of the subclassification, and also has the causal relationship
according to the criterion’s definition (like health and safety).
(2) Classification. This step distributes the inventory results to the specific stakeholder
categories or the impact categories.
(3) Characterization. The computation of the categories results is included in this section. The
ISO 14044 describes the process. The computation of the indicator results
(characterization) includes transformation with LCI results and general units, and the
results after transforming has also be integrated in the same impact categories (Guin ee