Challenge to the Social/Dynamic LCA with the ELCEL Concept

Abstract

Objective. “ELCEL (Extended Life Cycle Environmental Load)” is a concept for evaluating changes in environmental impacts over the entire range of an infrastructure provision project’s influences. The application of the ELCEL concept to the environmental evaluation of a project which changes a social system is examined.
Results and Discussion. A social system consists of various activities in a society, as well as the hard or soft infrastructure that supports them. The life cycle negative environmental impact of infrastructure has been researched using various approaches. Conservative infrastructure LCA traces unique development paths that differ from LCA in the industrial product field because infrastructure provision can change the entire social system. Not only the evaluation considering spillover effect to the whole society but also the consideration of the interrelationship among components in a social system is important. This approach is called “Social/Dynamic LCA” which means that system boundary needs to be extended, and its extension means introduction of the ELCEL concept. In addition, the main problems for establishing LCA for social system by the ELCEL concept are described. They can be summarized as follows: a) setting of spatial boundary; b) setting of temporary boundary; c) management of the trade-off between uncertainty and boundary; and d) a framework of the project evaluation method including LCA.
Conclusions. The key point to solve these problems by applying LCA to social systems is the Social/Dynamic LCA approach. We have tried to introduce the ELCEL concept to establish a methodology for evaluating social systems based on life cycle thinking, but several problems still remain. Authors will continue the work to establish the ELCEL concept.