Page 242 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

240 11. A composite life cycle sustainability index for sustainability prioritization of industrial systems

TABLE 11.7 Major categories, indicators, and corresponding requirements regarding the UNEP S-LCA
(Arcese et al., 2013; Aparcana and Salhofer, 2013; UNEP/SETAC, 2009; Mattioda et al., 2017)—cont’d
Stakeholder Indicator Requirement
Society (Both the national and global society Contribution to The promotion of economic contribution
affected by the system) economic to the society
development
Public The promise or agreement related to the
commitments to sustainable development of the system
sustainability
issues
Technology The development of efficient and
development environmentally friendly technologies
Corruption The prevention of corruption of the
system
Value chain actors (Those who are involved in the Fair competition The grantee of fair competition and the
sale/production of products, or in the operation of prevention of antitrust legislation or
the system, except for the consumers) monopoly practices
Promoting social The improvement of social
responsibility responsibility contributed by the whole
value chain of the investigated system
Supplier The cooperation between the supplies
relationships and the investigated system should be
facilitated stably
Respect of The protection of the intellectual
intellectual property rights by all the involved actors
property rights within the value chain

However, the S-LCA focuses on the evaluation of social impacts rather than the environmen-
tal performance, and it collects additional information on organization-related aspects with
the life cycle perspective. Therefore, the utilization of the S-LCA should be implemented
according to the specific characteristics and necessities of the system, by considering its phys-
ical, environmental, social, and economic limitations (Mattioda et al., 2017).

11.4.3 Other typical social indicators

With an increasing tendency in considering social concerns/responsibilities into the sus-
tainability assessment of the industrial systems, some other social indicators such as social
acceptability and social benefit have also been suggested frequently for being employed in
the life cycle-based assessment system. Besides, by viewing the policy-maker as another kind
of categorized stakeholder, some criteria from the political aspect, like government support
and political applicability, also can be deemed as social-political indicators. Some typical so-
cial (or social-political) indicators are briefly introduced in Table 11.8.