Social Hotspots Life Cycle Assessment: A Case Study On Social Risks Of An Antimicrobial Keyboard Cover

This article explores the application of social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) to products or technologies in their earliest developing phase. Indeed, it would be beneficial to have an overview of the social risks generated by novel products and understand what their potential supply chain would be like. To this end, this study presents a S-LCA study for identifying hotspots linked to a novel product: an antimicrobial keyboard cover integrating gold nanoparticles. Firstly, countries which could supply Europe with the input materials required in the system were identified, then by following the S-LCA methodology working hours and working functional hours were estimated. Ultimately, social risks were calculated by combining working functional hours with social risk levels and weights, concerning the relative importance of each category and sub-category. The analysis helped to determine which countries could supply the materials needed and hence become part of the potential supply chain of antimicrobial keyboard covers integrating gold nanoparticles. Furthermore, it led to the identification of main social hotspots linked to each material used. In general, results show that the stakeholders most at risk of adverse social impacts across different sectors and countries are workers. Indeed, they may be affected on both their rights and work conditions, health and safety. The process of gold mining highlights the difference in terms of social risks between more developed countries, such as Australia and Sweden, and developing countries, such as South Africa. The production of chemicals presents a homogeneity in terms of risk hours associated to the considered European countries.