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As one of the fastest-growing economies, China faces challenges of improving water utilization and treatment. This study performed the slack-based measure data envelopment analysis (SBM-DEA) which considered undesirable outputs to evaluate water utilization and treatment efficiency of the 30 provinces in the mainland of China and applied the Tapio decoupling elasticity model to examine the relationship between policy implementation and the performance of water utilization and treatment during 2008–2017. The result shows that the northern and northwestern provinces have taken the leading position in the efficiency of water utilization and treatment. The northeastern provinces have largely increased the efficiency but the southwestern provinces have the efficiency declined. Additionally, nearly half of the eastern and central-southern provinces have decreased the efficiency. The decoupling analysis recognized that environmental inspection and the investment in environmental components for new construction projects have a decoupling relationship with water use per capita, COD discharge, and wastewater discharge in most of the provinces, indicating their effective practice in enhancing the performance of water utilization and treatment. On the contrary, the mechanism of environmental impact assessment needs to be advanced to better support the improvement of water utilization and treatment. This study identified the development and the potential improvements of water utilization and treatment efficiency of China on provincial and regional perspectives, and determined the contribution of the selected policy measures to the management of water utilization and treatment, allowing the design of tailored roadmaps to address the regional gaps in water utilization and pollution abatement.
Ya-Ju Chang; Demi Zhu. Water utilization and treatment efficiency of China's provinces and decoupling analysis based on policy implementation. Resources, Conservation and Recycling 2020, 168, 105270 .
AMA StyleYa-Ju Chang, Demi Zhu. Water utilization and treatment efficiency of China's provinces and decoupling analysis based on policy implementation. Resources, Conservation and Recycling. 2020; 168 ():105270.
Chicago/Turabian StyleYa-Ju Chang; Demi Zhu. 2020. "Water utilization and treatment efficiency of China's provinces and decoupling analysis based on policy implementation." Resources, Conservation and Recycling 168, no. : 105270.
Current urban water security studies failed to incorporate sustainability concerns and the objectives of urban water management practices. China’s municipalities, namely Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin and Chongqing, have faced great pressure on water security, however, literature has not yet investigated their features and concerns of urban water security. To address these challenges, this study suggested a water security assessment framework which incorporates the features of urban water management transitions and sustainability aspects to analyze the urban water security condition of the four municipalities during 2011-2017. In addition, the Criteria Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation (CRITIC) method was employed to detect the weights of indicators without incorporating personal value judgements to enhance the results robustness. The results point out that Beijing has had the best water security condition, followed by Tianjin, Shanghai and Chongqing. In addition, Shanghai has had the largest improvement of water security condition among the municipalities during the investigated period. The condition of water use efficiency, river quality, pollutant discharge, wastewater treatment capacity, green covered area and crop area affected by droughts and floods has showed a great variation between the four municipalities. River quality improvement, and mitigation of droughts and floods damages have remained top priority in Tianjin and Beijing. The Shanghai government should lay a particular concern on the regulation of wastewater and pollutant discharges, and water use reduction. The Chongqing government should reinforce the coverage of sewage and drainage infrastructure, advance water use efficiency and balance water intensity of economic activities to avoid long term damages on water security. The assessment framework and approach are conducive to investigate and communicate water security condition of cities and can assist tailoring policy measurements to cities in different water security context.
Ya-Ju Chang; Demi Zhu. Urban water security of China’s municipalities: Comparison, features and challenges. Journal of Hydrology 2020, 587, 125023 .
AMA StyleYa-Ju Chang, Demi Zhu. Urban water security of China’s municipalities: Comparison, features and challenges. Journal of Hydrology. 2020; 587 ():125023.
Chicago/Turabian StyleYa-Ju Chang; Demi Zhu. 2020. "Urban water security of China’s municipalities: Comparison, features and challenges." Journal of Hydrology 587, no. : 125023.
The needs of children and their vulnerability to diseases, violence and poverty are different from those of adults. The Sustainable Child Development Index (SCDI) was thus developed in previous work to evaluate the status of sustainable development for countries with a focus on children and triple-bottom-line thinking. This study proposes application options to put the SCDI into practice. The SCDI can be performed similarly to existing development indices, for comparing and tracing the performance of sustainable development on different geographic levels and between population groups. In addition, the SCDI can be integrated into existing social sustainability assessment approaches (e.g., Social Life Cycle Assessment and Social Organizational Life Cycle Assessment) and databases (e.g., The Social Hotspots Database) to take children into account and enhance impact assessment of social sustainability assessment approaches. As an exemplification, this study demonstrates the application of the SCDI framework to support the development of social impact pathways. Due to the importance of tertiary education in reducing poverty, a preliminary social impact pathway addressing completion of tertiary education was established. By putting the SCDI into practice, the SCDI can support decision making in child as well as sustainable development policies.
Ya-Ju Chang; Annekatrin Lehmann; Lisa Winter; Matthias Finkbeiner. Application Options of the Sustainable Child Development Index (SCDI)—Assessing the Status of Sustainable Development and Establishing Social Impact Pathways. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2018, 15, 1391 .
AMA StyleYa-Ju Chang, Annekatrin Lehmann, Lisa Winter, Matthias Finkbeiner. Application Options of the Sustainable Child Development Index (SCDI)—Assessing the Status of Sustainable Development and Establishing Social Impact Pathways. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2018; 15 (7):1391.
Chicago/Turabian StyleYa-Ju Chang; Annekatrin Lehmann; Lisa Winter; Matthias Finkbeiner. 2018. "Application Options of the Sustainable Child Development Index (SCDI)—Assessing the Status of Sustainable Development and Establishing Social Impact Pathways." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 15, no. 7: 1391.
Despite the relevance of children in inheriting and shaping society, an index assessing sustainable development with a focus on children is missing. To tackle this gap, this study established the Sustainable Child Development Index (SCDI) by considering child development topics in the context of inter-generational equity and applying indicators with available statistical data on country level. The SCDI at present addresses health, education, safety, economic status and environmental aspects described by 25 indicators. By taking reference points derived from the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the SCDI scores for the year 2015 were calculated for 138 countries and then classified into four sustainable child development levels (very high, high, medium and low). The results showed great regional inequality on the status of sustainable child development. European countries generally have better status of sustainable child development. By contrast, 90% of African and 76% of Asian countries were classified as countries with medium and low levels. Moreover, the comparison of the SCDI, the Human Development Index (HDI) and the Child Development Index (CDI) based on correlation analysis and 10-year (2006–2015) country rankings demonstrated that the SCDI can complement existing development indices to provide a more comprehensive evaluation of sustainable development.
Ya-Ju Chang; Annekatrin Lehmann; Lisa Winter; Matthias Finkbeiner. The Sustainable Child Development Index (SCDI) for Countries. Sustainability 2018, 10, 1563 .
AMA StyleYa-Ju Chang, Annekatrin Lehmann, Lisa Winter, Matthias Finkbeiner. The Sustainable Child Development Index (SCDI) for Countries. Sustainability. 2018; 10 (5):1563.
Chicago/Turabian StyleYa-Ju Chang; Annekatrin Lehmann; Lisa Winter; Matthias Finkbeiner. 2018. "The Sustainable Child Development Index (SCDI) for Countries." Sustainability 10, no. 5: 1563.
Hauke Ward; Mia Burger; Ya-Ju Chang; Paul Fürstmann; Sabrina Neugebauer; Alexander Radebach; Gunther Sproesser; Andreas Pittner; Michael Rethmeier; Eckart Uhlmann; Jan Christoph Steckel. Assessing carbon dioxide emission reduction potentials of improved manufacturing processes using multiregional input output frameworks. Journal of Cleaner Production 2017, 163, 154 -165.
AMA StyleHauke Ward, Mia Burger, Ya-Ju Chang, Paul Fürstmann, Sabrina Neugebauer, Alexander Radebach, Gunther Sproesser, Andreas Pittner, Michael Rethmeier, Eckart Uhlmann, Jan Christoph Steckel. Assessing carbon dioxide emission reduction potentials of improved manufacturing processes using multiregional input output frameworks. Journal of Cleaner Production. 2017; 163 ():154-165.
Chicago/Turabian StyleHauke Ward; Mia Burger; Ya-Ju Chang; Paul Fürstmann; Sabrina Neugebauer; Alexander Radebach; Gunther Sproesser; Andreas Pittner; Michael Rethmeier; Eckart Uhlmann; Jan Christoph Steckel. 2017. "Assessing carbon dioxide emission reduction potentials of improved manufacturing processes using multiregional input output frameworks." Journal of Cleaner Production 163, no. : 154-165.
Since children are the key stakeholders supporting and being affected by sustainable development, the framework for the Sustainable Child Development Index (SCDI) was proposed. It addresses social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable development by considering seven relevant themes of child development, i.e., health, education, safety, economic status, relationship, environmental aspects and participation. However, an indicator set for initiating the SCDI is still missing. In this study, indicators for the themes, subthemes and criteria of SCDI are identified from literature and then analyzed regarding data availability. Sixty-six indicators with statistical data covering at least 100 countries are selected as the indicator set for the SCDI. The results indicate that data availability is best for indicators describing the themes of health and education, and worst for indicators addressing the themes of relationship and participation. Furthermore, 21 subthemes and 50 criteria described by indicators with limited data availability are identified for future indicator and data development. By providing an initial indicator set and screening the indicators with regard to data availability, the practicality of the SCDI framework is expected. Furthermore, the indicator set can serve as a potential indicator pool for other child and sustainable development related studies.
Ya-Ju Chang; Annekatrin Lehmann; Matthias Finkbeiner. Screening Indicators for the Sustainable Child Development Index (SCDI). Sustainability 2017, 9, 518 .
AMA StyleYa-Ju Chang, Annekatrin Lehmann, Matthias Finkbeiner. Screening Indicators for the Sustainable Child Development Index (SCDI). Sustainability. 2017; 9 (4):518.
Chicago/Turabian StyleYa-Ju Chang; Annekatrin Lehmann; Matthias Finkbeiner. 2017. "Screening Indicators for the Sustainable Child Development Index (SCDI)." Sustainability 9, no. 4: 518.
Sustainability assessments considering the three dimensions environment, economy, and society are needed to evaluate manufacturing processes and products with regard to their sustainability performance. This chapter focuses on Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA), which considers all three sustainability dimensions by combining the three methods Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Life Cycle Costing (LCC), and Social Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA). Existing LCSA approaches as well as selected ongoing work are introduced, both regarding the individual approaches as well as the combined LCSA approach. This includes, for instance, the Tiered Approach. This approach facilitates the implementation of LCSA, for instance, within the manufacturing sector, by providing a category hierarchy and guiding practitioners through the various impact and cost categories proposed for the three methods. Furthermore, ongoing developments in LCC and SLCA are presented, such as the definition of first economic and social impact pathways (linking fair wage and level of education to social damage levels) for addressing the current challenges of missing impact pathways for economic and social aspects. In addition, the Sustainability Safeguard Star suggests a new scheme for addressing the inter-linkages between the three sustainability dimensions. These approaches foster the application and implementation of LCSA and thus contribute to developing sustainable processes and products.
Ya-Ju Chang; Sabrina Neugebauer; Annekatrin Lehmann; René Scheumann; Matthias Finkbeiner. Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment Approaches for Manufacturing. Sustainable Production, Life Cycle Engineering and Management 2017, 221 -237.
AMA StyleYa-Ju Chang, Sabrina Neugebauer, Annekatrin Lehmann, René Scheumann, Matthias Finkbeiner. Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment Approaches for Manufacturing. Sustainable Production, Life Cycle Engineering and Management. 2017; ():221-237.
Chicago/Turabian StyleYa-Ju Chang; Sabrina Neugebauer; Annekatrin Lehmann; René Scheumann; Matthias Finkbeiner. 2017. "Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment Approaches for Manufacturing." Sustainable Production, Life Cycle Engineering and Management , no. : 221-237.
Welding is the most important joining technology. In the steel construction industry, e.g. production of windmill sections, welding accounts for a main part of the manufacturing costs and resource consumption. Moreover, social issues attached to welding involve working in dangerous environments. This aspect has unfortunately been neglected so far, in light of a predominant focus on economics combined with a lack of suitable assessment methods. In this chapter, exemplary welding processes are presented that reduce the environmental and social impacts of thick metal plate welding. Social and environmental Life Cycle Assessments for a thick metal plate joint are conducted for the purpose of expressing and analysing the social and environmental impacts of welding. Furthermore, it is shown that state-of-the-art technologies like Gas Metal Arc Welding with modified spray arcs and Laser Arc-Hybrid Welding serve to increase social and environmental performance in contrast to common technologies, and therefore offer great potential for sustainable manufacturing.
Gunther Sproesser; Ya-Ju Chang; Andreas Pittner; Matthias Finkbeiner; Michael Rethmeier. Sustainable Technologies for Thick Metal Plate Welding. Sustainable Production, Life Cycle Engineering and Management 2017, 71 -84.
AMA StyleGunther Sproesser, Ya-Ju Chang, Andreas Pittner, Matthias Finkbeiner, Michael Rethmeier. Sustainable Technologies for Thick Metal Plate Welding. Sustainable Production, Life Cycle Engineering and Management. 2017; ():71-84.
Chicago/Turabian StyleGunther Sproesser; Ya-Ju Chang; Andreas Pittner; Matthias Finkbeiner; Michael Rethmeier. 2017. "Sustainable Technologies for Thick Metal Plate Welding." Sustainable Production, Life Cycle Engineering and Management , no. : 71-84.
In Social Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA), the UNEP guideline proposes the five stakeholder groups to investigate the corresponding social issues from a whole-population perspective. Despite the relevance of children in inheriting and forming the society in the context of sustainable development, children are neglected as a relevant stakeholder group. To consider children's interests and influence in SLCA from a top-down perspective, a literature review is conducted to identify relevant topics and gaps related to the assessment of child development. The results categorize the main aspects of child development into six themes: health, education, safety, material condition, relationship, participation, and a newly proposed theme environmental aspect. Furthermore, to address the existing gaps, the Sustainable Child Development Index (SCDI) is proposed to consider relevant aspects of children development on an outcome and a context level, with regard to newly-proposed environmental aspects.
Ya-Ju Chang; Matthias Finkbeiner. Evaluating Sustainable Development from a Child's Perspective - A Proposal of Sustainable Child Development Index (SCDI). Procedia CIRP 2016, 40, 475 -480.
AMA StyleYa-Ju Chang, Matthias Finkbeiner. Evaluating Sustainable Development from a Child's Perspective - A Proposal of Sustainable Child Development Index (SCDI). Procedia CIRP. 2016; 40 ():475-480.
Chicago/Turabian StyleYa-Ju Chang; Matthias Finkbeiner. 2016. "Evaluating Sustainable Development from a Child's Perspective - A Proposal of Sustainable Child Development Index (SCDI)." Procedia CIRP 40, no. : 475-480.
In Social Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA), the health and safety aspect of workers is usually evaluated by considering the numbers of injuries and accidents; however, the work related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), which dominate occupational diseases, are often neglected in SLCA since the effects do not occur immediately. Thus, the MSDs lead to increased working absences and compensation costs, and also reduced productivity of workers. To address the gap, applying ergonomic assessment is proposed since it identifies and quantifies the health risks at work based on a set of pre-defined criteria e.g. force, posture, repetition and duration, and provides the numeric results analyzing the physical load and their sources. In the study, the application of ergonomic assessment and its indicators in SLCA is displayed to screen risks and to further improve working place design.
Ya-Ju Chang; The Duy Nguyen; Matthias Finkbeiner; Jörg Krüger. Adapting Ergonomic Assessments to Social Life Cycle Assessment. Procedia CIRP 2016, 40, 91 -96.
AMA StyleYa-Ju Chang, The Duy Nguyen, Matthias Finkbeiner, Jörg Krüger. Adapting Ergonomic Assessments to Social Life Cycle Assessment. Procedia CIRP. 2016; 40 ():91-96.
Chicago/Turabian StyleYa-Ju Chang; The Duy Nguyen; Matthias Finkbeiner; Jörg Krüger. 2016. "Adapting Ergonomic Assessments to Social Life Cycle Assessment." Procedia CIRP 40, no. : 91-96.
Selecting a welding process for a given application is crucial with respect to the sustainability of part manufacturing. Unfortunately, since welding processes are evaluated by a number of criteria, preferences for one or the other process can be contradictory. However, the prevalent procedure of weight assignment for each criterion is subjective and does not provide information about the entire solution space. From the perspective of a decision maker it is important to be able to assess the entire set of possible weightings and answer the question which welding process is optimal for which set of weights. This issue is investigated by means of a weight space partitioning approach. Two welding processes are considered with respect to three criteria that reflect their economic and environmental performance. In order to find the most sustainable welding process the underlying weight space partition is evaluated.
Gunther Sproesser; Sebastian Schenker; Andreas Pittner; Ralf Borndörfer; Michael Rethmeier; Ya-Ju Chang; Matthias Finkbeiner. Sustainable Welding Process Selection Based on Weight Space Partitions. Procedia CIRP 2016, 40, 127 -132.
AMA StyleGunther Sproesser, Sebastian Schenker, Andreas Pittner, Ralf Borndörfer, Michael Rethmeier, Ya-Ju Chang, Matthias Finkbeiner. Sustainable Welding Process Selection Based on Weight Space Partitions. Procedia CIRP. 2016; 40 ():127-132.
Chicago/Turabian StyleGunther Sproesser; Sebastian Schenker; Andreas Pittner; Ralf Borndörfer; Michael Rethmeier; Ya-Ju Chang; Matthias Finkbeiner. 2016. "Sustainable Welding Process Selection Based on Weight Space Partitions." Procedia CIRP 40, no. : 127-132.
Gunther Sproesser; Ya-Ju Chang; Andreas Pittner; Matthias Finkbeiner; Michael Rethmeier. Life Cycle Assessment of welding technologies for thick metal plate welds. Journal of Cleaner Production 2015, 108, 46 -53.
AMA StyleGunther Sproesser, Ya-Ju Chang, Andreas Pittner, Matthias Finkbeiner, Michael Rethmeier. Life Cycle Assessment of welding technologies for thick metal plate welds. Journal of Cleaner Production. 2015; 108 ():46-53.
Chicago/Turabian StyleGunther Sproesser; Ya-Ju Chang; Andreas Pittner; Matthias Finkbeiner; Michael Rethmeier. 2015. "Life Cycle Assessment of welding technologies for thick metal plate welds." Journal of Cleaner Production 108, no. : 46-53.
Children are an important stakeholder group for sustainable development, as they represent the interface between current and future generations. A comprehensive assessment of child development (CD) in the context of sustainable development is still missing. In this paper, as a first step, a literature review is conducted to identify relevant aspects and gaps related to the assessment of CD. The main issues of CD are categorized into seven themes: health, education, safety, economic status, relationships, participation, and newly proposed environmental aspects. The corresponding subthemes and criteria are classified accordingly (e.g., nutrition, child mortality, immunization, etc., are assigned to the theme health). However, gaps in current studies, such as the heterogeneous classification of relevant aspects, regional and societal bias in addressing certain aspects, the limited number of subthemes, and criteria and the missing inclusion of environmental aspects impede the assessment of sustainable child development. To address the existing gaps, a comprehensive framework, the Sustainable Child Development Index (SCDI), is proposed. The SCDI is based on sustainable development as the core value, considers relevant aspects of CD with regard to newly-proposed environmental aspects and includes 26 aspects on an outcome and 37 indicators on a context level to tackle the heterogeneous classifications and interdependencies of relevant aspects. The proposed index intends to strengthen the stakeholder perspective of children in sustainability assessment.
Ya-Ju Chang; Laura Schneider; Matthias Finkbeiner. Assessing Child Development: A Critical Review and the Sustainable Child Development Index (SCDI). Sustainability 2015, 7, 4973 -4996.
AMA StyleYa-Ju Chang, Laura Schneider, Matthias Finkbeiner. Assessing Child Development: A Critical Review and the Sustainable Child Development Index (SCDI). Sustainability. 2015; 7 (5):4973-4996.
Chicago/Turabian StyleYa-Ju Chang; Laura Schneider; Matthias Finkbeiner. 2015. "Assessing Child Development: A Critical Review and the Sustainable Child Development Index (SCDI)." Sustainability 7, no. 5: 4973-4996.
Kirana Wolf; René Scheumann; Nikolay Minkov; Ya-Ju Chang; Sabrina Neugebauer; Matthias Finkbeiner. Selection Criteria for Suitable Indicators for Value Creation Starting with a Look at the Environmental Dimension. Procedia CIRP 2015, 26, 24 -29.
AMA StyleKirana Wolf, René Scheumann, Nikolay Minkov, Ya-Ju Chang, Sabrina Neugebauer, Matthias Finkbeiner. Selection Criteria for Suitable Indicators for Value Creation Starting with a Look at the Environmental Dimension. Procedia CIRP. 2015; 26 ():24-29.
Chicago/Turabian StyleKirana Wolf; René Scheumann; Nikolay Minkov; Ya-Ju Chang; Sabrina Neugebauer; Matthias Finkbeiner. 2015. "Selection Criteria for Suitable Indicators for Value Creation Starting with a Look at the Environmental Dimension." Procedia CIRP 26, no. : 24-29.
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Social Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA) are applied in evaluating possible social and environmental impacts of the state-of-art welding technologies, such as Manual Metal Arc Welding (MMAW), Manual Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW), Automatic GMAW and Automatic Laser-Arc Hybrid Welding (LAHW). The LCA results indicate that for 1 meter weld seam, MMAW consumes the largest amount of resources (like filler material and coating on electrodes) and energy, which contributes to comparatively higher environmental impacts in global warming potential, acidification, photochemical ozone creation potential and eutrophication than other chosen processes. With regard to social aspects, the health issues and fair salary are under survey to compare the relative potential risk on human health caused by fumes in different welding technologies, and to indicate the sufficiency of current salary of welders in Germany. The results reflect that the wage status of welders is still fair and sufficient. The manual processes bring much higher potential risk of welders’ health than the automatic processes, especially MMAW
Ya-Ju Chang; Gunther Sproesser; Sabrina Neugebauer; Kirana Wolf; René Scheumann; Andreas Pittner; Michael Rethmeier; Matthias Finkbeiner. Environmental and Social Life Cycle Assessment of Welding Technologies. Procedia CIRP 2015, 26, 293 -298.
AMA StyleYa-Ju Chang, Gunther Sproesser, Sabrina Neugebauer, Kirana Wolf, René Scheumann, Andreas Pittner, Michael Rethmeier, Matthias Finkbeiner. Environmental and Social Life Cycle Assessment of Welding Technologies. Procedia CIRP. 2015; 26 ():293-298.
Chicago/Turabian StyleYa-Ju Chang; Gunther Sproesser; Sabrina Neugebauer; Kirana Wolf; René Scheumann; Andreas Pittner; Michael Rethmeier; Matthias Finkbeiner. 2015. "Environmental and Social Life Cycle Assessment of Welding Technologies." Procedia CIRP 26, no. : 293-298.
Social well-being and social justice are meant to create a positive outcome meaningful for people and societies. According to the guidelines of social life cycle assessment, especially well-being should be considered as the main area of protection to assess social impacts of products. In addition, equity and equality need to be addressed in terms of social justice to ensure a fair and ethic society. However, even if a lot of studies focused on the definition social indicators to assess resulting impacts, neither have scientific or common agreements been founded to define a valid set of indicators, nor have consistent pathways from inventory towards impact indicators been established. This work, therefore, proposes possible pathways from life cycle inventory to impact assessment of two social midpoint categories: fair wage and level of education. Respective cause-effect-chains are developed based on the environmental life cycle assessment principle. Correspondingly, social inventory indicators throughout direct impacts to midpoint and endpoint categories are defined. Three endpoint categories are included (economic welfare, damage to human health and environmental stability) to address social well-being and social justice. Qualitative characterization factors and a scaling method are proposed to evaluate the impacts according to threshold and reference values from valuable literature.
Sabrina Neugebauer; Marzia Traverso; René Scheumann; Ya-Ju Chang; Kirana Wolf; Matthias Finkbeiner. Impact Pathways to Address Social Well-Being and Social Justice in SLCA—Fair Wage and Level of Education. Sustainability 2014, 6, 4839 -4857.
AMA StyleSabrina Neugebauer, Marzia Traverso, René Scheumann, Ya-Ju Chang, Kirana Wolf, Matthias Finkbeiner. Impact Pathways to Address Social Well-Being and Social Justice in SLCA—Fair Wage and Level of Education. Sustainability. 2014; 6 (8):4839-4857.
Chicago/Turabian StyleSabrina Neugebauer; Marzia Traverso; René Scheumann; Ya-Ju Chang; Kirana Wolf; Matthias Finkbeiner. 2014. "Impact Pathways to Address Social Well-Being and Social Justice in SLCA—Fair Wage and Level of Education." Sustainability 6, no. 8: 4839-4857.
Due to the arising internationally awareness of sustainable development, sustainability has become an ultimate goal for worldwide industries to pursue. To construct a sufficient method for assessing sustainability on the product level nowadays is an important issue but still a challenge. The mature approach, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), is used to evaluate the environmental burdens. Taking the economic and social dimensions into consideration for a comprehensive life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) is necessary and so far in its infancy. Therefore, developing the LCSA is essential and inevitable. To do so, there are two main aims of this study: first, combining LCA, life cycle costing (LCC) and social life cycle assessment (SLCA) on a case study of the bamboo bicycle and the aluminum bicycle, to emphasize on the theoretical development of an overall, scientifically and widely valid method for the integrated sustainability assessment. Second, the study takes the origin of raw materials for bamboo and bauxite from respectively China and Guinea, and bicycle manufacturing in Germany to administer the SLCA practically. The hot spot social life cycle database is used as a starting point for the practical analysis of the social situations of the countries. The study compares environmental impacts between the two bicycles. The overall LCA results indicates that the bamboo bicycle is more environmental advantageous than the aluminum one. If observing only the processes related to frame production, the outcome shows there are significant differences between the two bicycles in specific impact categories such as freshwater eco-toxicity, freshwater eutrophication, marine eco-toxicity and human toxicity; however, while checking the results for the whole life-cycle of the bicycle, the mentioned differences are minor. Besides, this paper adopts LCC fitting best together with LCA boundary as a consistent pillar of sustainability assessment. In LCC, the study focuses on the two perspectives from the manufacturer and the user of the two bicycles. While probing social circumstance of developing countries deeply in the SLCA, the results reveal that in China, shortage of labor right, low average wage, and insufficient sanitation in urban area are the main issues. For Guinea, the critical topics are gender equity, child labor, long working time, low wage, lack of labor law and completed legal system, high dropout rate, less improved sanitation, and low living standard.
Ya-Ju Chang; Erwin Schau; Matthias Finkbeiner. Application of Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment to the Bamboo and Aluminum Bicycle in Surveying Social Risks of Developing Countries. Proceedings of The 2nd World Sustainability Forum 2012, 1 .
AMA StyleYa-Ju Chang, Erwin Schau, Matthias Finkbeiner. Application of Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment to the Bamboo and Aluminum Bicycle in Surveying Social Risks of Developing Countries. Proceedings of The 2nd World Sustainability Forum. 2012; ():1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleYa-Ju Chang; Erwin Schau; Matthias Finkbeiner. 2012. "Application of Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment to the Bamboo and Aluminum Bicycle in Surveying Social Risks of Developing Countries." Proceedings of The 2nd World Sustainability Forum , no. : 1.