Using Social Life Cycle Assessment to analyze the contribution of products to the Sustainable Development Goals: a case study in the textile sector

Abstract

Purpose

Evaluation and monitoring systems are perceived as an effective tool to understand and improve the contribution of business activities to the accomplishment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, there is currently a lack of guidance and support on assessing the influence that the life cycle of products and services has on the SDGs. This article presents a case study where Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) is applied to understand the social performance of a textile product and its potential contribution to the SDGs.

Methods

In this study, the link between the S-LCA methodology and the SDG framework was made at the indicator level, through a new classification of S-LCA indicators. This classification was aimed at indicating the positive or negative contribution of products or services into the SDGs. The method was tested with the case study of a man’s shirt whose supply chain takes place across five countries, from the cotton farming in China to the retailing in The Netherlands. The social performance of the shirt’s life cycle was analyzed through a social hotspot assessment (using PSILCA database) and a site-specific assessment following the UNEP/SETAC S-LCA guidelines. Primary data was collected for 6 different suppliers regarding 51 social indicators and four stakeholder categories (workers, local communities, value chain actors, and society).

Results and discussion

The social hotspot assessment indicated high social risks on indicators related to the following SDGs: health and well-being, affordable and clean energy, decent work, and responsible production and consumption. These risks were mainly located in Bangladesh (shirt manufacturing) and Malaysia (fabric manufacturing). The site-specific assessment indicated different results than the social risk assessment, showing worse social performance in the spinning stage (located in China). Negative scores were obtained for every supplier in at least four indicators, including working hours, safe and healthy living conditions, and access to immaterial resources.

Conclusions

The results indicated negative social performance of the supply chain in most of the SDGs and identified points of improvement for the final retailer. The linkage of the S-LCA framework with the SDGs presented methodological challenges, mainly related to the different scope of the SDG indicators and the S-LCA indicators.