Towards a comprehensive approach for the sustainability assessment of a product: product social impact assessment

The importance of sustainability assessment along the product life cycle is getting more significant in companies and the scientific community. The BMW Group uses life cycle assessment (LCA) as tool for improving the environmental performance of its products. The definition of a sustainability assessment of a product life cycle says that three dimensions should be evaluated: environmental, economic and social. The success of the BMW Group has always been built on long-term thinking and responsible action. The company has therefore established environmental and social sustainability throughout the value chain and along the entire product life cycle with a clear commitment to conserving resources, emissions reduction and, a comprehensive product responsibility. Because there is still no standard available to assess social performance along the product life cycle, the BMW Group together with 11 other companies and Pre Sustainability started the Roundtable for Product Social Metrics in 2013. The main goal of the project is to develop a feasible and practicable methodology for assessing positive and negative social impacts of a product. A handbook to support LCA practitioners in assessing social performance quantitatively and qualitatively has already been published. It is the first time that a group of companies has worked together towards a harmonized approach to assess social performance of a product life cycle using bottom-up approach. Case studies for implementing this method were carried out by partners of the project to prove its feasibility and to identify its benefits and challenges. An example of a case study was the assessment of the social performance of a Run On Flat tire as mounted onto a BMW vehicle. Benefits and challenges of the methodology as well as the case study were identified to move a step forward towards a standard for the social assessment of a product.