Environmental and social life cycle assessments of an industrial LED lighting product

Abstract

It is necessary to assess a product's sustainability from both environmental and social perspectives. However, combined environmental and social performance assessments have not been given enough attention. This paper presents a combined Environmental Life Cycle Assessment (E-LCA) and Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) of an industrial LED luminaire through its life cycle. The LCA screening studies were conducted in line with ISO 14044 and United Nations Guidelines for E-LCA and S-LCA with Ecoinvent and PSILCA databases. The study analysed the key potential risks as well as the interrelation between E-LCA and S-LCA results, in which the production of LED driver, LED panel, and electricity consumption were identified as the hotspot processes to both environmental and social impacts. Four social issues were identified, namely ‘association and bargaining rights’, ‘sanitation coverage’, ‘public sector corruption’ and ‘pollution’. LED driver and panels are responsible for 78% and 20% of the environmental impacts respectively in the production phase. Electricity accounts for an average of 51% of environmental impacts. The process also made the key contribution to the ‘social responsibility along the supply chain’ (52%), ‘industrial water depletion’ (84%) and ‘contribution to environmental load’ (63%) risks. Meanwhile, in the category ‘contribution to economic development’, 18% positive social impacts were identified. Based on the results obtained, recommendations were derived for the development of sustainable LED lighting products and services with a trade-off between the environmental impact and the socio-economic benefits. According to the literature review, this research is the first attempt to assess a combined environmental and social performance in industrial LED lighting products and provides a valuable contribution to knowledge for future research in this area.