Assessment of Social Impacts of Chemical and Food Products in the Czech Republic

Abstract

The journey towards sustainability for the chemical and food industries requires sustainable production and consumption and also requires the social responsibility of organizations. Companies’ stakeholders ask themselves more and more about the social impacts of products and production processes. The chemical and food industries can be considered to be among the most important industries with strong impacts on society, and they bring about many social interactions. Both industries are interested in solving the questions of the impacts of their products on health, working conditions, production, and product safety, as well as the protection of human rights and cultural heritage. It is necessary to discuss conditions and limitations for effective assessment of social impacts along the whole product’s life cycle. The assessment of chemical and food products’ impacts requires identification of the industry specifics and the regional specifics; traditionally, the chemical industry is perceived as an indispensable and helpful, but on the other hand, a dangerous, hazardous and environmentally harmful industry branch. The food industry can be considered to be essential and beneficial, but with a strong influence on landscape utilization, human health, and social welfare. Both industries have strong social interactions and are under the strict supervision of EU legislation authorities and stakeholders; therefore, it is necessary to discuss the scope of social impact assessment studies, the choice of suitable indicators, and data availability. This chapter characterizes the perceived importance of the social impacts of chemical and food products on stakeholders. There are determined sector-specific and national-specific social impacts of chemical and food production processes in the EU area. Also, the possibilities of monitoring and evaluation of appropriate Social Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA) indicators at the corporate level are disscused. On the basis of the data collected from semi-structured interviews with top managers from more than 35 chemical and food companies, it was possible to conclude that there is a considerable effort on the part of the companies not to underestimate the assessment of social impacts of their products. Both industries are influenced by many specifics, but a lack of information support for the collection of data or selection of indicators is evident. The absence of branch data and absence of information about the social impacts of the origins of the basic raw materials complicate monitoring in the initial stages and in the final life cycle stages of chemical substances. The assessment of food products can be considered to be significantly simpler than the assessment of chemical products, but the absence of branch-specific data and availability of branch-oriented indicators complicate the assessment. Future effective assessment of social impacts requires closer understanding of the life cycles of chemical and food products—especially with chemicals. It is necessary to carry out further theoretical developments in the field of branch-specific indicators and the development of an information basis for the collection and processing of generic (hotspot) data. It is also necessary to encourage further improvement of an information basis on the corporate level.