Sustainable life cycle management : a case study in the process industry to develop a calculation procedure for social indicators following conventional LCIA methods

Abstract

Social criteria have been proposed to evaluate the sustainability of operational initiatives in the process industry through an integrated Life Cycle Management (LCM) approach. Indicators for these social criteria are subsequently introduced. The calculation of the indicators follows conventional LCIA methods, and specifically the distance-to-target approach for normalisation, whereby a societal footprint is used to establish the significance of social impacts. However, the practicability of these indicators is highly dependent on the availability of information where an operational initiative is assessed. A case study in the South African process industry is used to demonstrate the calculation procedure. Further case studies are required in order to refine the social criteria, and indicators, that are practical for management purposes in the process industry.