What About The Materials’ Social Impact?

It is widely known that the life cycle of building materials, from their production through their operational life and beyond, account for the wellbeing of the ecosystems and communities that interact with the material. These societal, or “social” impacts, apply to all materials: from cement quarries to metal or brick factories. Yet materials that are more “natural”, such as earthen and biobased products are suggested to be more equitable, community engaging, and non-toxic. While there is a widespread consensus on the social benefits of earthen and bio-based materials, a sys-tematic analysis that quantifies these benefits is still missing. To address this need, this study develops a social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) tool to contribute to a fully integrated ecosystem approach that combines the analysis of societal, environmental, and economic attributes of any building material. The results provide enumerated impact results from an online survey of a range of stakeholders: manufacturers, designers, contractors, researchers, and owners. Similar to an environmental LCA, this S-LCA impact assessment is quantified using indicators across the entire life cycle of the building material while prioritizing areas of “hot spots” in the analysis, provided in terms of health and safety, worker conditions, regional impacts and community engagements, and regional sustainability. The outcomes show that earthen and bio-based materials outperform concrete and steel materials in almost all aspects of the S-LCA framework, with the exception of the provision of social benefits and professional development opportunities for workers in the extraction, production, and construction phases.

https://doi.org/10.35483/ACSA.AIA.InterMaterialEco.23.31

Volume Editors
Caryn Brause & Chris Flint Chatto