Development of Social Intensity Database Using Asian International Input–Output Table for Social Life Cycle Assessment

Abstract

The social impacts of products and service life cycles are increasingly of interest among policy makers and stakeholders. Workers’ issues are considered to be a source of key inventory data to assess social impacts, and are crucial in moving towards social sustainability. There is a need to develop a social inventory database for evaluating social impacts of products and services. This study aimed at the development of a social intensity dataset using an input–output analysis framework. The 2005 Asian International input–output table is used in this work. Six social issues are considered: total employment, paid workers, vulnerable employment, wages, fatal, and non-fatal occupational injuries. To verify the acceptability of this study, an estimation of total social footprint deduced from final consumption rates was carried out. The social intensities associated with 10 countries and 76 economic sectors were constructed. The results show that the social intensities from cradle to gate the agricultural sector has the highest in terms of total employment and vulnerable employment. Meanwhile, the mining sector in China has a higher non-fatal and fatal occupational injuries than the agriculture sector, secondary sector, and tertiary sector. The public administration sector and the education and research sector had a higher wages intensity than any other sectors due to these sectors being labor intensive and having higher wages. The social intensity in terms of total employment, paid workers, vulnerable employment, non-fatal injuries, and fatal accident cases in the developing countries was higher than the developed countries whereas wages intensity in developing countries was lower than that of developed countries. The social footprints resulting from the final consumption of each country show that the social footprints had transferred from the developing countries to the developed countries. Exports from China to the USA, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore have a significant social impact in these countries.