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:
Dr. Arij Chabrawi: arij.chabrawi@inab.rwth-aachen.de
This Master’s thesis focuses on a systematic review and critical analysis of current applications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the field of sustainability. The student will investigate state-of-the-art AI-based solutions across different sustainability domains and evaluate their potential benefits and limitations.
A central part of the thesis is the assessment of these AI applications within the Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) framework. The objective is to identify both positive and negative environmental, social, and economic impacts that may arise from the use of AI technologies in sustainability-oriented decision-making.
Prerequisites:
This thesis topic is available only to students who have successfully completed the course Sustainability Assessment Methods and Tools (Products).
Contact:
Davis Jose: davis.jose@inab.rwth-aachen.de
Requirements:
Language: German or English
Contact:
Sarina Achterfeldt: sarina.achterfeldt@inab.rwth-aachen.de
An introductory meeting on this topic and the execution of the student research project will take place (tentatively in November). The exact date will be determined based on the number of interested participants.
If you are interested, please send an email to: roland.meyer@inab.rwth-aachen.de
