Framework for assessing social sustainability in supply chains

Increased interest for sustainability reporting has been provoking both, companies and academics to deepen their research in sustainability and therefore on sustainability indicators. When assessing social sustainability a lack of knowledge is present and due to the increased stakeholders' pressures and awareness on the possible social impacts along the supply chains there is a need of studying this sustainability component. This research proposes a framework for assessing social sustainability aiming to support the associated decisions on the supply chain while considering the differences that exist within the different echelons of supply chain. Sixteen social mid-point impact categories are considered and a set of quantitative social indicators were assigned to the sixteen social mid-point categories accordingly to their echelon level. The supply chain was divided into three main generic echelon levels - upstream, midstream and downstream. The validation of the proposed framework and indicators was performed through a content analysis of 142 sustainability reports containing companies in all echelons. The obtained results give clear definition of social sustainability indicators throughout the whole supply chain. Additionally, the results help practitioners to support collaborative improvement of sustainability along the supply chain. The final framework testing has been done by applying it to an upstream chemical company.