The ultimate goal of sustainable development is human well-being which contributes to the needs of current and future generations (UNEP/SETAC, 2009). The problem of addressing consequences of corporate actions might be considered from several points of view including Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA). Hence, a possible paradigm for its evaluation could be the frame of the economy of capabilities (Sen, 1977; Macombe (ed.), 2013).
Evaluating the consequences of the organization behavior on well-being is vital to elaborate a valid model to assess social performance In this sense, one of the main contribution of an organization may be its benefit on society measurable in terms of widespread enrichment of stakeholders’ well-being.
The main objective of this paper is to rely on the definition of well-being indicators in order to face the problem of assessing the social performances of an organization. Firstly, organization actions contained in the inventory data have been connected to a set of well-being dimensions using a Delphi expert consensus method (Jorm, 2015). This method enables to identify solid connections between the organization operations and the variables that compose human well-being. These weights connecting each dimension of well-being to the actions implemented by the organization can assume the value “0” if there is no link between action and well-being dimension, or “1” if there is a link between action and well-being dimension. Then, as a result of the sum of each organization action/attribute measured, we give a general consistent definition of social performance.
Based on the definition of well-being, and accordingly to Serreli et al. (2016), the focus is on the effectively measured inventory indicators and by adopting the connections of the first step. Then, the performance of that organization linked to each variable of the well-being indicator is obtained. As a last step, the performance of the organization in each area of well-being is weighted by screening the well-being indicators, obtaining a methodological option to assess social performances. The results show that a feasible measurement of the social performance of an organization is possible and theoretically acceptable, especially when referring to some stakeholder categories, i.e. local community and society.
In conclusion, this paper’s contribution may be helpful in the debate concerning the development of IA methods recommended by UNEP/SETAC (2009). A new scheme of evaluation based on a comprehensive approach which allows to produce more precise and accurate scoring processes on the basis of the weights of well-being indicators has been pointed out.
References
Jorm, A.F., 2015. Using the Delphi expert consensus method in mental health research. Aust. New Zeal. J. Psychiatry 49, 887–897. doi:10.1177/0004867415600891
Macombe, C. (ed.), 2013. Social LCAs - Socio-economic effects in value chain. FruiTrop Thema. CIRAD.
Sen, A., 1977. Social Choice Theory: A Re-Examination. Econometrica 45, 53. doi:10.2307/1913287
Serreli, M., Cozzi, M., Zamagni, A., Petti, L., 2016. Positive aspects in a Social Life Cycle Assessment of a handicraft product: the case study of a wheels of semisoft juniper-smoked ricotta cheese. 5th International Conference in Social Life Cycle Assessment, Harvard University, Cambridge (US), 13th – 15th June. Book of abstracts, p. 34.
UNEP/SETAC, 2009. Guidelines for Social Life Cycle Assessment of Products. http://www.unep.fr/shared/publications/pdf/dtix1164xpa-guidelines_slca.pdf [Accessed Dec, 7 2017]
8b. Health and well-being
