Abstract
The social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) is a technique for assessing social impact and potential impact that aims to evaluate the social and socio-economic aspects of products and their potential for both positive and negative impacts along their life cycle. The lack of a quantitative inventory data for social issues is a weakness of the S-LCA methodology to calculate social impacts. This study aims to establish a social inventory database in Thailand using input–output (IO) modeling. The 2005 economic IO table of Thailand is used in this study. The six different social issues are calculated for both direct and indirect social intensity. The social issues include employment, number of female employees, working hours, wages and salaries, and non-fatal and fatal occupational cases. The results indicate that the primary sector has the highest social intensity in terms of employment, female employment, and working hour intensity. Meanwhile, the secondary sector was higher in non-fatal occupational cases intensity than other sectors. For wages intensity, the results show that the government sector was higher than other sectors, it being labor intensive and of low economic value. In addition, the fatal occupational cases shows the highest intensity in the non-metallic mining, fertilizer and pesticides, and construction sectors. In terms of total social impacts or social footprints, the wholesale and retail trade sector had the highest impact for almost all social issues due to the higher final demand in this sector.
Highlights
The three dimensions for sustainable development are environmental, social, and economic issues, with the ultimate goal being human well-being of both the current and future generations
This study calculates the direct and indirect social footprint associated with the activities of the Thai economy and detects key sectors and important social issues in Thailand using the IO model
The results show that the primary sector has the highest social intensity in terms of employment, female employment, and working hour intensity
Summary
The three dimensions for sustainable development are environmental, social, and economic issues, with the ultimate goal being human well-being of both the current and future generations. Social problems are increasing both in regards to living standards and quality of life. This results in increasing impacts in the up-stream and down-stream economic sectors of the economy. In the last two decades, the annual average increase in the ratio of energy consumption value to GDP in Thailand has exceeded 100%. In 2012, the ratio was 18.8% higher than the previous year, whereas in it was only 11% [1] This increase in energy consumption is expected to result in greater environmental impacts on the environment. Energy has become an important socio-economic issue that puts pressure on all countries in the world to improve energy efficiency and develop renewable energy resources
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