Financial Modelling Strategies for Social Life Cycle Assessment: A Project Appraisal of Biodiesel Production and Sustainability in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada

Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) is a rapidly evolving social impact assessment tool that allows users to identify the social impacts of products along with their life cycles. In recent years, S-LCA methodologies have been increasingly applied to energy systems and resources with notable success yet with limited reliability and even less flexibility or geographic specificity. In response, this study develops a novel assessment tool, named the GreenZee model, to reflect the social impacts of products and their sustainability using local currency units. The model is developed through evaluating both qualitative and quantitative inputs that capture the perceived monetary value of social impacts. To demonstrate the operationalization of the model, we explore a hypothetical case study of the biodiesel industry in Newfoundland and Labrador (NL), Canada. Results indicate that biodiesel production in NL would have positive socio-cultural impacts, high cultural values, and would create employment opportunities for locals. Overall, the GreenZee model provides users with a relatively simple approach to translate a variety of qualitative and quantitative social impact inputs (as importance levels) into meaningful and understandable financial outputs (as strength levels). We argue that building and testing models such as the GreenZee are crucial to supporting more flexible approaches to life cycle assessments that need to address increasingly complex social categories, cultural values, and geographic specificity.