From Social Accountability 8000 (SA8000) to Social Organisational Life Cycle Assessment (SO-LCA): An Evaluation of the Working Conditions of an Italian Wine-Producing Supply Chain

The Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) methodologies allow the entire supply chain of wine to be analysed via a systematic approach. Social Organisational Life-Cycle Assessment (SO-LCA) extends the product perspective of Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) to a more complex view of the organisation, assessing the entire organisation or part of it (e.g., facilities, geographical area, brands) from a life cycle perspective. It is implemented via the technical framework adopted by Organisational LCA (O-LCA) and S-LCA and according to ISO 14040:2020 and ISO 14044:2020 standards; it follows four phases: Goal and Scope Definition phase, Life Cycle Inventory (LCI), Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) and Life Cycle Interpretation. This study focuses on the implementation of SO-LCA in a wine-producing organisation starting from a social organisational approach to the working conditions previously evaluated with SA8000. The SO-LCA case study was performed on a consortium composed of nine cooperative wineries located in Chieti, Abruzzo, a region in Central Italy. The existing experience of the consortium with SA8000 provided information and data on the working conditions of the companies involved in the life cycle of the evaluated wine line. All the results were in compliance with our expectations. In the future, it would be desirable to integrate the evaluation based on SA8000 with other data, thus including further working-related social themes in the evaluation.

Automated summary

The Life Cycle Thinking methodologies allow for a systematic analysis of the entire wine supply chain. Social Organisational Life-Cycle Assessment (SO-LCA) expands the perspective of Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) to assess the entire organization or part of it from a life cycle perspective. This study focuses on implementing SO-LCA in a wine-producing organization, evaluating the working conditions previously assessed with SA8000. The results were as expected, and future integration of SA8000 evaluation with other data on social themes related to work is desired.