Contribution of capital goods production to social impacts: A life cycle perspective for a circular desalination plant

The production of capital goods is often ignored in the life cycle inventory phase of life cycle assessment studies. In this study, we investigated whether capital goods production, i.e., manufacturing of capital equipment and construction of infrastructure, and operation affect the results of the social life cycle assessment (S-LCA), using a...

Social Life Cycle Assessment of Marine Biofuels in Namibia: Insights from a Charcoal Value Chain

The use of encroacher bush in Namibia for the production of sustainable maritime biofuel can play a role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions within the maritime sector. However, it is crucial to ensure that biofuel is produced sustainably, to mitigate any potential negative social, economic and environmental impacts. This thesis focuses on...

Weaving ‘social’ into LCA: a methodological comparison of Social Life Cycle Assessment with purely qualitative social sustainability assessment

Assessing the Social Performance and Social Risks of Wastewater Treatment Systems Through Social Life Cycle Assessment: A Case Study of the WATER MINING Project in Spain

Water scarcity problems will continue to exacerbate in many parts of the world, urging society to mitigate or adapt. Consequently, unconventional water resources, such as municipal wastewater, are becoming more relevant. This thesis aims to measure and evaluate the social impacts of wastewater treatment (WWT) systems potentially stemming from...

Developing social life cycle assessment based on corporate social responsibility: A chemical process industry case regarding human rights

MSocial Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) uses a life cycle perspective to assess social impacts of products, and the S-LCA guidelines describe developing the system boundaries based on a factory-level perspective. However, such a perspective may exclude stakeholders with a negative social performance which are cooperating with a factory but are...

Integrating individual behavior dimension in social life cycle assessment in an energy transition context

Energy transition is a result of mankind’s reaction to climate change and individuals are expected to have a crucial role in achieving it in developed countries. The purpose of this study is to apply the social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) tool and investigate the social performance of the Dutch energy transition while focusing on individual...

Developing and Applying a Social Life Cycle Assessment Methodology to Assess the Social Sustainability Performance of Organizations in the Dutch Chemical Process Industry: A Case Study of the ZERO BRINE Project in The Netherlands

Over the past few decades, sustainable development has become one of society's most important challenges. In an effort to become sustainable, many companies experience an increasing need to measure, manage and improve the negative economic, environmental and social impacts caused by their organizational behavior along corporate supply chains and...

Social life cycle assessment of brine treatment in the process industry: A consequential approach case study

Social life cycle assessment (SLCA) was developed to complement the environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) and economic assessment. Contrary to LCA, SLCA is not yet standardized, and the consequential approach is little discussed in literature. This study aims to perform a consequential SLCA and investigate the applicability of the method...

The integration of environmental and social sustainability impacts of the biojet fuel product system within the life cycle assessment framework

The Master's programme Industrial Ecology is jointly organised by Leiden University and Delft University of Technology - Biojet fuel is developed as a potentially more sustainable alternative to existing petroleum based jet fuels. To establish the environmental and social sustainability of the biojet fuel product system, the full life cycle of...