Time-based indicators of forced labour, local employment and equal opportunities in social LCA

Paper in proceeding, 2020

The conventional type-1 indicators used in social life cycle assessment have mathematical problems related to aggregation of impacts along product life cycles. This contribution therefore proposes three time-based, quantitative type-2 indicators: (i) the share of the life-cycle labour hours of a product conducted as forced labour, (ii) the share of labour hours conducted locally, and (iii) the share of labour hours conducted by the two genders (females and males). These indicators all have the unit time (e.g. hours) and capture the three subcategories forced labour, local employment and (partly) equal opportunity, respectively. Forced labour and local employment both constitute shares of the total life-cycle labour hours, whereas the shares of labour hours conducted by females and males respectively make up the total labour hours. The absolute values of these indicators can be used for product comparisons, but their distribution along product life cycles might be even more interesting.