Decision Making for Social Sustainability: A Life-Cycle Assessment Approach

The need for sustainable development requires organizations to consider the economic, environmental, and social repercussions of their actions. While the economic effects, and increasingly the environmental consequences, of engineering design and business decisions are evaluated, little attention has been devoted to understanding the social impacts. It has been recognized that corporate decisions are linked to social sustainability indicators, and the need exists to better understand these links. This research represents a first step toward modeling the relationships between corporate decision alternatives and lower-order human needs (e.g., physiological requirements) and higher-order needs (e.g., belonging).