Social Life Cycle Assessment in the Construction Industry: Systematic Literature Review and Identification of Relevant Social Indicators for Carbon Reinforced Concrete

Jana Gerta Backes () and Marzia Traverso
Additional contact information
Jana Gerta Backes: RWTH Aachen University
Marzia Traverso: RWTH Aachen University

Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, 2024, vol. 26, issue 3, No 64, 7199-7233

Abstract: Abstract This article deals with the application of social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) in the construction sector and explicitly focuses on carbon reinforced concrete (CRC). The publication consists of two parts: (1) a scientific literature review on the current implementation of S-LCA in the construction sector, and (2) the definition of the relevant social hotspots for the cradle-to-gate production of CRC. The literature review was conducted to provide a general overview and compare S-LCA studies in the construction sector; second, countries that provide the relevant input materials needed for CRC were identified. Analysis within the Social Hotspot Database (SHDB) helped determine the relative importance of the CRC supply country for each social category and subcategory. By developing a metric in the form of scores for each risk information, the potential risks indicated by the SHDB were measured. The results show that the focus of the indicators to be highlighted and further used in the indicator catalog is particularly in the area of labor rights and decent work in the health and safety subcategory. Missing data within the SHDB may result in a defined high average score and lead to a lower level of information. In the future, the identified 36 social indicators for CRC should be revised again in cooperation with the manufacturing industry. This study aims to further raise awareness in the construction sector of life-cycle-based sustainability that goes beyond the environmental aspects, and it is the first social hotspot screening using the SHDB for CRC.

Keywords: Social life cycle assessment; S-LCA; Construction; Carbon reinforced concrete; Hotspot indicator catalog; Review (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10668-023-03005-6 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:spr:endesu:v:26:y:2024:i:3:d:10.1007_s10668-023-03005-6

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/10668

DOI: 10.1007/s10668-023-03005-6

Access Statistics for this article

Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development is currently edited by Luc Hens

More articles in Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().