Social Life Cycle Assessment Used in Indigenous Contexts: A Critical Analysis

Kristina Sehlin MacNeil, Sheelagh Daniels-Mayes, Skye Akbar, Jillian Marsh, Jenny Wik-Karlsson and Åsa Össbo
Additional contact information
Kristina Sehlin MacNeil: Várdduo—Centre for Sami Research, Umeå University, 901 87 Umeå, Sweden
Sheelagh Daniels-Mayes: Indigenous Research Hub, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW 2050, Australia
Skye Akbar: UniSA Business, City West Campus, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA 5000, Australia
Jillian Marsh: Moondani Balluk Indigenous Academic Unit, Victoria University, Footscray, Melbourne, VIC 3011, Australia
Jenny Wik-Karlsson: Sámiid Riikkasearvi, 906 21 Umeå, Sweden
Åsa Össbo: Várdduo—Centre for Sami Research, Umeå University, 901 87 Umeå, Sweden

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 9, 1-14

Abstract: This paper evaluates the method Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) from the perspectives of Indigenous methodologies and Indigenous standpoint, in order to identify some strengths and limitations of using S-LCA in Indigenous contexts. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is used to measure environmental impacts connected with all stages of the life cycle of a commercial product, process, or service. S-LCA is a methodology designed to include the social aspects of sustainability in the LCA methodology. S-LCA emphasizes stakeholder involvement and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) S-LCA guidelines (2020) lists Indigenous communities as possible stakeholders. With a focus on Indigenous communities in the Arctic region we also include comparative aspects from Australia to generate new conceptualizations and understandings. The paper concludes that S-LCA has the potential to facilitate opposing worldviews and with some further developments can be a valuable methodology for Indigenous contexts.

Keywords: Arctic; Australia; Indigenous methodologies; Indigenous peoples; Indigenous standpoint; Sámi; social life cycle assessment; S-LCA (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/9/5158/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/9/5158/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:9:p:5158-:d:549083

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().