Towards social Life Cycle Assessment of Energy Systems: a case study on offshore wind farms from companies’ perspective

Abstract

Within the energy transition context, private and public decision-makers must choose between different energy scenarios. Hence, environmental, and social impacts incurred from the development of renewable energies need to be investigated to ensure their alignment with energy transition objectives. Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) is one of the most appropriate methods to analyse social and socio-economic impacts with a life cycle perspective. However, social impacts included in sustainability analyses of energy systems mostly focus on employment or health and safety issues. Few studies in the literature present a rigorous approach to account for social impacts affecting different stakeholder categories. The present work is supported by a close collaboration with key industrial partners of the energy sector to overcome the above-mentioned limitation. Hence, it contributes to the definition of the goal and scope phase of a S-LCA study through the integration of companies’ perception. Thus, it aimed to highlight the priority of social impact subcategories and related stakeholdersin the context of offshore wind farms (OWF). As a result, a core set of impactcategories that were perceived as the most relevant is proposed.