Governance & Policy
Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA)
Definition
Social life cycle assessment is a methodology for assessing the social and socio-economic aspects of products and their potential positive and negative impacts along the entire life cycle — extraction, processing, manufacturing, distribution, use and disposal. Developed under the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative (guidelines first published 2009, updated 2020), it evaluates impacts on stakeholder categories including workers, consumers, local communities, society and value chain actors, across impact subcategories such as child labour, fair salary, health and safety, and community infrastructure.
References
This reference provides supporting context for how “Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA)” is defined and used.
Source imported for editorial provenance.
Overview
How it is used
S-LCA supports product comparison, hotspot identification in supply chains, complementing environmental LCA in full sustainability assessment, and due diligence scoping.
Why it matters
Products carry social footprints as real as carbon footprints; S-LCA is the method that makes them visible and comparable.