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Abstract
The establishment of new value chains raises expectations in economic and social benefits. To determine whether these expectations can be fulfilled or whether there are also negative consequences, social aspects should be assessed as early as the R&D phase. Potential social impacts can be assessed with the help of a social life cycle assessment (SLCA). A common problem in SLCA studies is the large number of social aspects. Thus, it is important to prioritize the most relevant aspects. Scholars agree that socioeconomic indicators should not be selected on a purely intuitive and common sense basis and that a standardized approach is missing. A three-step process has been developed to identify the most vulnerable and relevant social aspects. These three steps were implemented into a case study to empirically test the method. Short-rotation-coppice as an alternative form of agricultural dendromass production is one possibility to obtain wood resources for the processing of bio-based products. The use of agricultural land for dendromass production promises additional income for the region’s farmers and job opportunities for the local population. The extant literature shows that the most frequently addressed impacts are related to workers’ health and safety aspects. The outcome of this study aims to support future research by identifying an appropriate approach for the selection of indicators in SLCA. For studies with a similar focus, the proposed set of indicators can be used as a framework in itself or serve as a basis for the choice of relevant social indicators.
Highlights
The emerging bioeconomy is seen as one of the major drivers in climate change mitigation and for the development of a more sustainable future
Thereby, we propose a set of social aspects and corresponding indicators to be used in social life cycle assessment (SLCA) studies
It is recommended to consider these aspects in detail for the respective foreground system in an SLCA study and to assess potential implications in the foreground system as far as possible with primary data
Summary
The emerging bioeconomy is seen as one of the major drivers in climate change mitigation and for the development of a more sustainable future. As aimed for in the bioeconomy (“knowledge-based bioeconomy”), are a young field of research, and knowledge about the social dimension of the related production processes is limited. The increasing interest in bio-based products requires a precise monitoring of Bioenerg. (2021) 14:510–533 entailing the social or socioeconomic impacts. Regarding bio-based value chains, a high social risk potential is assumed for the upstream processes in the agricultural sector [5]. Comparison of social impacts is especially challenging for bio-based value chains, since socioeconomic effects are strongly dependent on several production factors like the cultivation method, land quality, and the production scale [6]. Through the relation to the spatial context, the effects have a strong regional dependency, since socioeconomic impacts have an influence on the respective environment of production locations [7]. In the case of bio-based products from SRC, two points are striking: studies regarding the production method SRC as well as regarding the geographical scope of interest, Eastern Europe or Slovakia, are missing
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