Page 119 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

5.4 The social assessment—S-LCA 115
Random sampling method will be used to reduce the quantity of survey respondents, but
the risk of serious problems may be ignored. So, a kind of system with cost-effectiveness, (in-
cluding hotspots assessment, desktop screening, and limited focus) becomes a feasible
option. The data priorities play an important role in a S-LCA. The second step of data collec-
tion usually includes the general analysis of social problem of the area, which is the maximum
input source in life cycle of a product. Finally, people can get more accurate evaluation com-
bined the regional information and the industry-level data.

5.4.3.4 Interpretation
The interpretation is a process of evaluating results whose purpose is to draw a conclusion.
In order to keep consistent with the target and scope of the research, this stage has some spe-
cific purposes: analyze results, obtain conclusions, explain the limitation of the research, offer
suggestions, and give a report. There are three main steps defined in ISO 14044 (ISO, 2006c):
the first step, recognition of the key problems; the second step, the evaluation of the research
(include consideration of globality and consistency); the third step, conclusion, suggestion,
and report.
An integrated S-LCA evaluation should also include the content of these four main steps:
(1) Recognition of the key problems. The important points of S-LCA are the key social survey
results and choices of research methods, which include recognition of core concerns and
limitations and assumptions in study; for example, the focus of general evaluation may be
a social hot spot, an important inexpectant impact, which is beneficial to society, or a
human rights violation discovery in a unit process. In addition, the choice of system
boundary and its level of details (each process from the general to the fixed point, then to
the product system) are particularly important.
(2) The evaluation of the research. A series of quantitative, half-quantitative, and qualitative
methods will be used to evaluate. Some key requirements in the evaluation process
include the critical review, the files of the process of evaluation, the action steps ensuring
transparency, and the verifiability. The evaluation of the research has two basic
requirements (Benoıˆt et al., 2009), which are integrality and consistency.
The integrality evaluation aims at evaluating whether all of the associated important
problems have been studied and all necessary data have been collected, or not. It includes
the evaluation of the indicators used to gain conclusion and the data gaps.
The consistency evaluation aims to verify the model of the goal and the scope on the
basis of initial definition, and verify the correctness of the choice of methodology.
(3) Conclusion, suggestion, and report. The conclusion and the suggestion should be
presented in accordance with the goal and the scope of the research. It should put forward
a preliminary conclusion and verify whether the conclusion is consistent with the demand
of the research or not. If not, the initial steps need to be changed, and, if consistent, the
report of the conclusion could start. The report should be absolutely transparent, which
means that all the assumptions, the fundamental principles, and the choices should be
explained. The suggestion is a way to express the choice of action and the conclusion can
be put forward by different ways, according to intended audience and ability to support
the conclusion. In order to analyze easily, the conclusion can be expressed by the
following forms (Benoıˆt et al., 2009):