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Measuring What Matters: Social Metrics for the Future of Sustainable Business

Editor: Sharah Saputra (LCI Team)


As businesses increasingly adopt sustainability practices, much attention has been given to reducing environmental footprints through tools like Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). But sustainability is not just about emissions or resource use — it’s also about people. Every business activity, from sourcing materials to delivering products, carries social impacts across the value chain. These impacts can be both positive, such as job creation and community investment, and negative, such as unsafe working conditions or inequality. While many companies are already making efforts to support their stakeholders, one critical question remains: how do we measure and manage these social impacts?


Measuring “what matters” goes beyond tracking emissions and energy use — it involves understanding how business activities affect stakeholders along the value chain. From labor practices to community well-being, every phase of a product’s life cycle carries potential social implications, both beneficial and adverse.


Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) emerges as a key tool for filling this gap. S-LCA is a methodology for assessing the potential social and socio-economic impacts of products and services throughout their entire life cycle—from raw material extraction to disposal. Unlike environmental LCA, which focuses on ecological impacts, S-LCA focuses on people—workers, communities, consumers, value chain actors, and society as a whole. It provides a structured, science-based framework to help businesses identify social risks and opportunities, ensuring that sustainability initiatives contribute positively to human well-being and social equity.


What is S-LCA and How Does it Differ from LCA?

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has long been used to measure the environmental footprint of products—from carbon emissions to water use. Complementing that, the S-LCA measures the social and socio-economic impacts associated with every phase of a product’s life cycle.

According to UNEP and SETAC (2020), S-LCA helps identify both positive and negative social impacts, such as labor rights violations, community displacement, health and safety, local employment or fair wages. It’s a tool for businesses seeking to ensure their supply chains are not only green but also just and inclusive.

Under the UNEP’s guidance, S-LCA considers at least the following stakeholder groups:

  • Workers

  • Local Communities

  • Consumers

  • Value Chain Actors (e.g., suppliers, distributors)

  • Society (e.g., institutions, regulatory bodies)

  • Children

Within each stakeholder group, relevant social impact subcategories include the following. Additional subcategories can be defined.


List of stakeholder categories and impact subcategories (Source: UNEP, 2020)
List of stakeholder categories and impact subcategories (Source: UNEP, 2020)

This comprehensive lens is what makes S-LCA uniquely suited for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) strategies.


Why S-LCA Matters for ESG

Investors, regulators, and consumers increasingly demand more than just environmental stewardship—they expect ethical practices, equity, and transparency. A McKinsey study (2022) revealed that over 70% of consumers consider a company’s treatment of workers and communities when making purchasing decisions.


In the ESG space, social factors are often more challenging to quantify due to their inherent complexity. Many companies have mastered measuring internal social metrics like diversity and occupational health and safety. The real challenge, however, lies in quantifying more abstract, external impacts like community engagement or well-being along the supply chain, often due to a lack of standardized metrics. S-LCA addresses this challenge with a systematic, data-driven methodology that integrates a life cycle perspective, allowing companies to:

  • Identify hidden labor issues in global supply chains

  • Benchmark social performance across facilities or suppliers

  • Monitor progress toward social responsibility goals

  • Communicate social impact to stakeholders with greater transparency


Examples of Social Metrics in the Supply Chain

Let’s say a clothing brand sources cotton from multiple countries. An S-LCA study may reveal:

  • One supplier uses fair wage policies (positive impact on workers)

  • Another operates in a region with poor access to education (negative impact on local communities)


Social indicators tracked through S-LCA could include:

  • Hours worked per week

  • Living wage benchmarks

  • Occupational health statistics

  • Community grievance mechanisms

  • Incidents of child or forced labor


By understanding these variables, the company can make more responsible sourcing decisions. Dig deeper by learning examples from the UNEP’s Pilot Projects: Pilot-projects-on-UNEP-SLCA-Guidelines-12.5.pdf 


Tools to Support Conducting S-LCA

Several databases and tools have emerged to support S-LCA implementation:

  • Social Hotspots Database (SHDB): Provides country-sector-specific data for over 150 indicators covering human rights, labor rights, health, and governance (Benoît-Norris et al., 2012).

  • PSILCA (Product Social Impact Life Cycle Assessment): A commercial database covering more than 15,000 activities and over 100 social indicators (GreenDelta, 2020).

  • Subcategory Assessment Method (SAM): A UNEP-recommended method for qualitative and quantitative impact evaluation.

  • SimaPro: A software platform that allows both environmental and social data.



What’s Next? Measuring What Matters

For businesses, the journey toward sustainability is no longer just about carbon footprints. It’s about embedding social topics such as human rights, community well-being, and ethical governance into every layer of production and consumption.


By adopting S-LCA, companies move closer to a complete sustainability measurement, taking into account the people pillar of sustainability. This isn’t just a moral imperative; it’s a smart strategy for managing risk, protecting reputation, and building resilience in an increasingly transparent world.



Join the Webinar

In today’s sustainability landscape, understanding how to measure social performance is essential. Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) provides a science-based approach to evaluate how products, services, and operations affect people — from workers to consumers, local communities to society at large. Whether you’re a professional, student, policymaker, or simply someone curious about responsible business, S-LCA offers powerful tools to drive positive social change across value chains. This is exactly what we’ll explore in our upcoming session with IBCSD (Indonesia Business Council for Sustainable Development) and Pro-LCAS (Indonesian Association of Life Cycle Assessment and Sustainability Professional): Road to S-LCA 2026 Conference - “S-LCA: Measuring Social Impacts to Strengthen ESG Commitment”.


Reserve your spot by registering at https://bit.ly/Pro-LCAS_JUMATAN


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