Complementing Social Life Cycle Assessment to Reach Sustainable Development Goals - A Case Study from the Malaysian Oil Palm Industry

Abstract

The Malaysian oil palm industry is one of the important contributors to the national economy, which improves the socio-economic of people, source of employment and eradicating poverty, but the industry is always scrutinised on its sustainability performance related to the human well-being and social issues. One of the approaches to address the associated social impacts in the oil palm industry is through social life cycle assessment (S-LCA). S-LCA was developed by the United Nations Environmental Programme and Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (UNEP/SETAC) to assess positive and negative social impact along the supply chain. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) also has set the social criteria to move society towards the improvement of the well-being of people and surroundings. This study aims to assess the social impacts of the workers in the Malaysian oil palm industry using S-LCA and to indicate their connection with relevant SDGs.