Effective communication plays a crucial role in raising awareness about sustainability. Serious Games was identified as a relevant tool for educating adults on the social aspects of sustainable development. In this regard, Sociabill was developed. Sociabill is grounded in the principles of Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) and aims to provide adults with a comprehensive understanding of this methodology. In Sociabill, players assume the role of entrepreneurs seeking to launch their inaugural T-shirt collection. The objective is for players to construct their businesses by acquiring social impact subcategory cards spanning the product’s lifecycle. Ultimately, the game culminates in a mock audit, determining whether players have established socially responsible, aspirational, or lagging companies.
Testing the game within different groups revealed the need for updates of the game. The thesis should critically look at the game and reveal improvement options (especially related to potential impacts and points granted according to production location).
The thesis can be written in German or English.
Contact: Anna Luthin – anna.luthin@inab.rwth-aachen.de
The automotive industry’s substantial contribution to global emissions and resource consumption underscores the urgent need for robust sustainability regulations. Alongside environmental concerns, social and ethical issues such as labor practices and supply chain transparency are critical ESG concerns, gaining increased attention. Recognizing the urgency, many automotive companies are increasingly focusing on ESG factors to comply with regulatory requirements, attract environmentally-conscious customers, and secure investment from ESG-focused investors. At the same time, global governments and regulatory bodies are increasingly implementing policies to transition the automotive sector towards a low-carbon and sustainable future.
Despite the increasing regulatory pressure, challenges persist in the assessment and comparability of required disclosures within the automotive sector. Thus, this research aims to:
Contact: Suzana Ostojic (suzana.ostojic@inab.rwth-aachen.de)
Lightweight components have become well-established measures in the automotive sector, leading to less material consumption and reducing manufacturing and operating environmental impacts. In the current research, a particular focus has been laid on glass-fiber-reinforced polymer composites. Those innovative lightweight materials have the potential to reduce environmental impacts throughout the life cycle compared to conventional monolithic aluminum or magnesium lightweight components.
Yet, recycling lightweight composites at their end-of-life can pose new modeling challenges and significantly influence the results of life cycle assessment (LCA) studies. In contrast to established recycling processes (e.g., steel recycling), new materials’ recycling technologies lack maturity (e.g., recycling of fiber-reinforced polymers), leading to downcycling of the materials. In addition, the energy required to recycle lightweight structures can be higher than for conventional materials (e.g., for the sorting and separation of composites). Lastly, also the need for primary data plays a significant role.
Accordingly, this thesis aims to work out the currently possible methods for the recycling of fiber-reinforced polymer composites and the related energy consumption to enable a life cycle assessment for the end of its life cycle. For this purpose, a life cycle assessment model of fiber-reinforced polymer composites should be built for the end of their life cycle. The environmental performance of the modeled scenarios should be evaluated with Excel. The overall results will serve as early guidance for the environmentally sustainable development of innovative lightweight structures.
The thesis is to be written in English.
Contact: Suzana Ostojic – suzana.ostojic@inab.rwth-aachen.de
Start date: as soon as possible
Requirements:
Context:
The movement of both people and goods stands as a fundamental pillar of our society. Currently, mobility, particularly concerning road traffic, faces significant challenges related to durability, safety, efficiency, sustainability, costs, and automation. Such pressing challenges demand immediate and comprehensive solutions. A possible solution can be found in the Digital Twin Road, which can be used for the pavement management in the future road system and has the potential to lead to a sustainable road infrastructure.
However, to have a system that is holistically sustainable, it should comprehend, in addition to environmental and economic considerations, the social dimension and encompass broad social acceptance by the end user. Similar to most disruptive technologies, it is possible that aspects related to the Digital Twin Road could affect the social acceptance of certain stakeholders, also impacting in the way they engage with it. For instance, the presence of sensors collecting data on the road may produce apprehension from road users due to data protection concerns. Therefore, the social acceptance of sensors used for the data collection within the context of the Digital Twin Road (DT) must be investigated.
Goals and tasks:
The main goal of this master thesis is to assess the social acceptance of sensors / DT for the stakeholder “road user”. The main outcome of the thesis is a list of social concerns that affect the social acceptance of the DT. Furthermore, strategies should be proposed to address the identified constraints and improve social acceptance.
First, a literature study should be performed to identify the implications of the use of sensors in the context of the DT. Based on these findings, semi-structured interviews should be conducted on a representative group in Germany to identify which social constraints are considered the most influential. Furthermore, potential strategies for improving social acceptance should be presented under consideration of those most influential social concerns. These aspects should be analyzed by applying a Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) method to identify the best possible strategies based on the outcomes of the survey. The outcomes of the thesis should support the further investigation of social acceptance of sensors / DT on a larger scale.
Organizational matters:
The thesis will be supervised by Dr. Arij Chabrawi and Pamela Del Rosario (M.Sc.)
The thesis should be written in English
If you’re interested, please write an e-mail to Ms. Del Rosario and Dr. Chabrawi and attach a brief CV and grade summary
Contacts:
Pamela Del Rosario: pamela.delrosario@inab.rwth-aachen.de
Dr. Arij Chabrawi: arij.chabrawi@inab.rwth-aachen.de
Social Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA) is the youngest among the three approaches related to Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment. It is evolving throughout time and new methodologies are being incorporated into the researchers’ practices. Data collection is still the greatest constraint, being the primary data collection one of the major challenges to SLCA.
According to the Guidelines for Social Life Cycle Assessment of Products and Organizations (Benoît Norris et al., 2020), SLCA comprises six stakeholders of analysis: worker, actors of the value chain, local community, society, consumers and children. Among them, the worker stakeholder is the one most commonly assessed either by collecting primary or secondary data sources.
Therefore, this project aims at running an extensive literature review on the data collections methods and tools, either related to generic or specific data, applied to assessing the six stakeholders, with an emphasis on workers. Furthermore, it aims to map the most assessed indicators, regardless of the economic sector of the studies, in order to propose a harmonised set of indicators for each stakeholder, comprised with a sound definition and suggesting data collection sources and reliable tools within the literature.
This thesis must be written in English.
Contact: Arij Chabrawi (arij.chabrawi@inab.rwth-aachen.de)
Within the context of the three pillars of sustainability – environmental, economic, and social – there is a growing need and interest in the development of innovative products and processes to enhance overall sustainability. In current automotive sector research, particular emphasis is placed on recyclable fiber-reinforced polymer composite materials. These innovative lightweight materials have the potential to reduce environmental impacts over the entire lifecycle compared to conventional lightweight components made of aluminum or magnesium. However, since they are still in an early stage of development, no quantitative assessments of the impacts in the other two dimensions of sustainability over the entire lifecycle have been conducted thus far.
The methodology of Life Cycle Cost (LCC) analysis is utilized for assessing economic sustainability. This involves cumulatively determining all costs associated with a product or project over its entire physical lifespan. The objective of this work is to conduct a literature review that illuminates the application scope of LCC in the automotive industry, in order to subsequently perform a comparative, literature-based LCC analysis for a specific lightweight structure utilized in a motor vehicle.
The thesis can be written in either German or English.
Contact: Suzana Ostojic – suzana.ostojic@inab.rwth-aachen.de
The automotive industry’s substantial contribution to global emissions and resource consumption necessitates an urgent and sustainable transformation. In addition to environmental concerns, attention to social and ethical issues such as labor practices and supply chain transparency have gained increased attention. To address these multifaceted challenges, life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) has emerged as a well-established methodology for comprehensively evaluating the environmental, social, and economic impacts across the entire life cycle of automotive products and services. However, the complexity of sustainability considerations demands a nuanced approach, wherein trade-offs between dimensions and impacts must be carefully evaluated.
In contemporary research, multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) serves as a pivotal tool for integrating the outcomes of life cycle sustainability assessments and systematically ranking comparative product systems. Consequently, this thesis undertakes a rigorous literature review of MCDA tools specifically tailored for sustainability assessment within the automotive sector, meticulously scrutinizing prevalent criteria, data sources, and methodological frameworks. The central aim of this investigation is to elucidate the potential synergies inherent in these integrated approaches within the context of sustainability-focused MCDA in the automotive industry.
Specifically, the study scrutinizes methodological approaches and evaluations, aiming to compare and analyze them comprehensively. The research endeavors to address several key questions, including:
The thesis can be written in German or English.
Contact: Suzana Ostojic – suzana.ostojic@inab.rwth-aachen.de
Aluminum components have diverse applications across various industries, and their environmental impacts have been extensively researched in life cycle assessments (LCAs). However, a comprehensive life cycle-based sustainability assessment (LCSA) requires consideration not only of the ecological pillar but also of two additional pillars: the economic and the social dimensions.
This thesis proposal aims to place particular emphasis on the social dimension. However, a thorough and meaningful social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) necessitates an extremely detailed analysis of datasets. Therefore, within the scope of this work, an analysis of social risk hotspots will be conducted. With the assistance of the Social Hotspot Database (SHDB), relevant stakeholders, subcategories, and indicators can be identified. Risks related to working conditions, wages, and potential health hazards for employees along the value chain can be identified early on.
The objective of this study is to analyze the supply chain and production of aluminum lightweight structures and define relevant social indicators. The selected indicators will be based on literature studies and a risk analysis of the identified production countries. Through the hotspot analysis, both optimization opportunities and initial requirements for the social sustainability of the value chain will be defined.
The thesis can be written in either German or English.
Contact: Suzana Ostojic – suzana.ostojic@inab.rwth-aachen.de
Lightweight components made of fiber composite plastics are currently undergoing intensive research and are versatile in their applications. Particularly, there has been a focus on glass fiber-reinforced polymer composite materials. These innovative lightweight materials have the potential to reduce environmental impacts throughout their lifecycle compared to conventional aluminum or magnesium lightweight components. However, a comprehensive lifecycle-based sustainability assessment (LCSA) requires consideration not only of the ecological pillar but also of two additional pillars: the economic and the social pillar.
This thesis will particularly focus on the social pillar. However, a thorough and meaningful social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) requires an extremely detailed analysis of datasets. Therefore, within the scope of this work, an analysis of social risk hotspots will be conducted. With the assistance of the Social Hotspot Database (SHDB), relevant stakeholders, subcategories, and indicators can already be identified. Risks related to working conditions, wages, and potential health risks for employees along the value chain can be identified early on.
The aim of this thesis is to analyze the supply chain and production of a new innovative lightweight structure and define relevant social indicators. The considered indicators are based on literature and a risk analysis of the identified production countries. Through the hotspot analysis, both optimization opportunities and initial requirements for the social sustainability of the value chain will be defined.
The thesis can be written in either German or English.
Contact: Suzana Ostojic – suzana.ostojic@inab.rwth-aachen.de
