Social impact improving model based on a novel social life cycle assessment for raw rubber production: A case of a Sri Lankan rubber estate

Abstract

Raw rubber production is the foundation of natural rubber product industry. Despite the various social issues (e.g., substandard working conditions) reported in raw rubber production, literature focusing on social impacts has been limited. Although social life cycle assessment (SLCA) has been a popular tool to assess the social impacts of a product or process, no any functional unit has so far been developed here due to the difficulty in linking the intangible social impacts to physical flows. Furthermore, the methodologies available in SLCA are insufficient for foreseeing the social benefits after addressing the social hotspots derived from a study. On this background, this study aimed at improving the social performances of raw rubber production using a novel SLCA method addressing the above said lacunas. The Stakeholder social impact (SSI) and Social impact categorical (SIC) indexes are salient components of this method as they quantify the social impact at stakeholders’ perspective and overall geopolitical perspective, referring to a functional unit, respectively. As a pilot study, this method was applied to a rubber estate in Sri Lanka where crepe rubber was produced. “Social benefits/security” and the “health and safety” of workers in the estate were identified as the most vulnerable factors affecting the rubber production. Further, the countermeasures proposed were found to be effective in improving these elements by 25% and 70%, respectively and overall social burden by ca. 12% as indicated by SIC index. Potential use of SSI index and SIC index at country level for benchmarking the overall social impacts and possible implications in adopting the methodology developed in other geographical areas and/or in other industries are discussed.