Project Title: Guidelines for Social Life Cycle Assessment

Co-Implementing Partners: Social Life Cycle Alliance

Co-Funding Partners: Life Cycle Initiative funding partners

Project Summary:

The project aims to provide revised guidelines for Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA). A first set of guidelines published in 2009 provide a map, a skeleton and a flashlight to guide stakeholders engaging in the assessment of social and socio-economic impacts of the life cycle of products.

Since the first publication, the relevance of S-LCA has only increased, and a plethora of initiatives promoting value chain due diligence have been positioning social issues as a central concern, for private and public sector actors alike. In the wake of this development, the Life Cycle Initiative continues to be closely involved in making the methodology for S-LCA more approachable and practical for anyone who wants to become familiar with and start applying the method.

The Guidelines revision process involves several technical workshops and the participation of topic-based experts and users. The project will also conduct a series of road tests, where the Guidelines are applied to a range of products or organizations and industrial sectors. The results of such pilot projects will enable the generation of additional resources to support implementation as well as training materials.

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