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Social life cycle assessment of a desalination and resource recovery plant
on a remote island: Analysis of generic and site-specific perspectives
Georgios Archimidis Tsalidis
a,b,c,
⁎,DimitriosXevgenos
d
, Rodoula Ktori
a
, Adithya Krishnan
e
,JohnA.Posada
a
a
Biotechnology Department, Delft University of Technology, Van der Maasweg 9, 2629 HZ Delft, the Netherlands
b
Environmental and Networking Technologies and Applications Unit, Athena - Research and Innovation Center in Information, Communication and Knowledge Technologies, Greece
c
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Brunel University London, United Kingdom
d
Engineering Systems & Services Department, Technology Policy & Management faculty, Delft University of Technology, Jaffalaan 5, 2628 BX Delft, the Netherlands
e
Water & Energy Intelligence BV, the Netherlands
abstractarticle info
Article history:
Received 27 September 2022
Received in revised form 17 March 2023
Accepted 17 March 2023
Available online 22 March 2023
Editor: Prof. Adisa Azapagic
The sustainable supplyof water is crucial, especially on islandswhere water is scarce. Our studyapplied the social
life cycle assessment (S-LCA), under the organizational approach, to assess industrial water production on the is-
land of Lampedusa, Italy. A novel plant for industrial water production considering a circular concept was com-
pared with the existing linear production plant based on reverse osmosis. An online survey, brief literature
review and generic analysis were conducted to prioritize impact subcategories selection for site-specificanalysis
that regarded six organizations inthe system boundaries. These subcategories were Localemployment, Accessto
material resources, Promoting social responsibility, End-of-life responsibility, Health and safety (Workers), and
Public commitment to sustainability issues. The social performance of organizations involved was assessed
based on equal weighting and weighting with cost values. The generic analysis showed that wastewater treat-
ment in Italy is underdeveloped, and water scarcity can become a serious problem in the future. The site-
specific analysis based on equal weighting showed that the novel water plant results in improving social perfor-
mance for all considered impact subcategories by 88 % to 91 % due to co-production when compared with the
existing plant. Even increasing impacts allocation to industrial water production socialbenefits are still expected
due to co-production. The type of weighting based on cost values showed that two organizations are the main
contributors to the social performance of the novel system, and improving their corporate conduct can result
in improving impacts up to 25 %, such as Public commitment to sustainability issues. To conclude, the novel
plan does provide social benefits but mainly due to co-production, thus, it should be investigated more how to
apply the S-LCA to linear production systems as they become more circular.
© 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Institution of Chemical Engineers. This is an open access
article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Keywords:
Lampedusa
Site-specificS-LCA
Industrial water
Circular economy
Reference scale approach
Type I
1. Introduction
Clean, circular and sustainable water supply systems are top priori-
ties to reach a more sustainable society and counteract the increasing
pressure on water depletion and ecosystems due to urbanization pro-
cesses (Re et al., 2021), and other human activities. Furthermore, the re-
liable supply of sustainable industrial water can be even more critical
and challenging in remote islands (Post et al., 2021) where diesel en-
gines are used for electricity generation.This study deals with the appli-
cation of the social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) on demineralized
water production on the Italian island of Lampedusa to understand
better the social sustainability of an existing reverse osmosis plant and
a circular water plant.
Water is an indispensable good in modern society since it is neces-
sary for various purposes, from human drinking and use as an energy
carrier, to the cooling of operating machines (Trapanese and Frazitta,
2018). Thus, the European Union water policy prioritizes access to
good quality water in sufficient quantity for all Europeans and sustain-
ing the good status of all European water bodies. The focus is on river
basins, freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity, water scarcity, flood
risk management, the integration of the Water Framework Directive
in other policies, but not on ultra-pure demineralized water which is
used in industrial purposes (Dettori et al., 2022). In addition, the supply
of clean and sustainable water is one of the priorities of the sustainable
development goals (SDG) (Mironenko et al., 2015), as well as for the
Italian agenda to achieve a circular economy(Re et al., 2021). However,
water losses of the distribution network are a major global problem and
Sustainable Production and Consumption 37 (2023)
⁎Corresponding author at: Biotechnology Department, Delft University of Technology,
Van der Maasweg 9, 2629 HZ Delft, the Netherlands.
E-mail address: g.a.tsalidis@tudelft.nl (G.A. Tsalidis).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2023.03.017
2352-5509/© 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd onbehalf of Institution of Chemical Engineers. This is an open access articleunder the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.
org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Sustainable Production and Consumption
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/spc
one of the crucial problems of the Italian water system which performs
worse than global average (Laspidou, 2014). Approx. 37 % and 45 % of
Italian water is not received by end-users on average at national scale
and in the southern islands, respectively (Re et al., 2021).
Desalination is an energy intensive process which is crucial for
water supply in islands located far away from the mainland. Islands,
such as Cyprus, consume up to 240 GWh of electrical energy per year
to produce the desalinated water required, leading to approx.
169 ktons of CO
2
eq. (Xevgenos et al., 2021). However, such remote
islands are often not connected to the national grid. Therefore, they
typically use a local electricity mix that is largely based on diesel
engines (Franzitta et al., 2018). which require a large amount of
water for cooling purposes (Shafieian and Khiadani, 2020). The quality
of the cooling water used in power plants located on islands can vary
significantly. In Lampedusa, desalinated water with conductivity of
approx. 400 μS/cm is used. Water for cooling purposes (referred to as
industrial water hereinafter) can be produced from seawater with
various technologies, such as multi-effect distillation, multistage flash
distillation, mechanical vapor compression, electro dialysis reversal,
and reverse osmosis (Trapanese and Frazitta, 2018). These technologies
or related desalination plants have been investigated for their environ-
mental (Lee and Jepson, 2021) and economic performances (Moossa
et al., 2022). However, the social perspective is still underrepresented.
S-LCA is in its infancy and it is still under development (Iofrida et al.,
2018). S-LCA employs the same framework as environmental LCA andis
promoted by the United Nations for use within the holistic approach of
life cycle sustainability assessment (Wulf et al., 2019). S-LCA assesses
social and socioeconomic impacts of products, and it consists of four
steps (UNEP, 2020). In the first step, the system under study is de-
scribed in terms of its goal and scope. Next organizational-based
(for Type I approach) and/or process-based (for Type II approach)
data are collected and organized by impact subcategory on a generic
and/or site-specific level of analysis. The generic level of analysis is
used for national or sectorial societal “hotspots”, while the site-
specific level of analysis concerns societal data about specificorgani-
zations and/or processes within the system boundaries. In the third
step, collected data are characterized into impact subcategories and
aggregated into impact categories and/or stakeholder categories. Fi-
nally, results are discussed and conclusions and recommendations
are presented based on the goal and scope of the study (UNEP,
2020;UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative, 2013).
Four S-LCA studies have assessed the social impacts of desalination
systems with case studies and a perspective study about the application
of S-LCA on circular system was recently published (Table 1). Opher
et al. (2018) performed a site-specific analysis and investigated the so-
cial impacts due to the use of reclaimed domestic wastewater in urban
households. Desalinated seawater was the source of their domestic
water. These authors selected impact subcategories based on a litera-
ture review that included national scale surveys and considered self-
developed impacts as well. They concluded that domestic water reuse
results in social benefits, mainly due to water savings. Two studies
(Tsalidis et al., 2020;Tsalidis and Korevaar, 2019) performed a site-
specific analysis to investigate the expected social benefits of four
European cases and a generic analysis to investigate social benefits on
the national scale for a case that treated industrial wastewater with a
high salinity level to recover materials. These authors concluded that
site-specific analysis of cases in developed countries results in positive
social performance of the companies involved in case studies due to
strict national laws. However, Tsalidis et al. (2020) mentioned that the
“water consumption”indicator was an area of concern, and Tsalidis
and Korevaar (2019) concluded that employing S-LCA may not result
in the expected social benefits because local communities and workers
may not benefit if the analyzed system has large geographical bound-
aries. Serreli et al. (2021) employed the PSILCA S-LCA database to assess
social impacts of a full-scale plant that treats various kinds of wastewa-
ter. They concluded that industrial sectors upstream the full-scale plant
are major sources of social burdens. Lastly, a recent perspective study
(Tsalidis, 2022a) investigated the application of Type I S-LCA when a
linear produ ction desalination pla nt is converted into a cir cular desa-
lination plant through the treatment of its wastewater for materials
recovery. This study concluded that the quality and quantity of in-
volved organizations is crucial when the Type I approach is applied
to compare products or systems.
Hence, to the best knowledge of the authors, there are still no
published studies assessing social impacts derived from a seawater
desalination system for industrial water production which recovers
materials to minimize waste generation, nor have compared the con-
version of an actual linear production plant to a circular production
plant or have prioritized impact subcategories selection based on
water industry expert consultation. This study aims to assess, for
the first time, the social impacts of the desalination process for in-
dustrial water production in Lampedusa, a remote Italian island. De-
salination was represented by two systems, an existing reverse
osmosis plant, and a more circular and novel plant. The social impact
assessment is carried out using the S-LCA method and both levels of
analysis are investigated.
2. Material and methods
The S-LCA guidelines (UNEP, 2020) were followed for the assess-
ment of the social performance and stakeholder categories and impact
subcategories were selected based on a literature review and an online
survey.
2.1. Case study
Lampedusa is a small remote Italian island of 5000 inhabitants
(Faust, 2015) located betweenSicily and northern Africa which depends
on one single power plant for its electricity generation. The power plant
generates electricity with diesel engines and converts seawater into
industrial-quality water in a reverse osmosis plant which is integrated
into the power plant (Franzitta et al., 2018). The reverse osmosis also
Table 1
Literature overview of S-LCA studies that concerned saline water treatment.
Study Object of analysis Level of
analysis
Key findings
(Opher et al., 2018) Reuse of domestic wastewater Generic Distributed urban water reuse was socially beneficial due to the promotion of public
commitment to conservation of water resources and advancement of community engagement.
(Tsalidis and Korevaar, 2019) Treatment of saline industrial
wastewater
Generic Social benefits in one country may results in social burdens in another country.
(Tsalidis et al., 2020) Treatment of saline industrial
wastewater
Site specific National regulations are crucial in positive organizational code of conduct.
(Serreli et al., 2021) Treatment of industrial
wastewater
Generic The use of a social life cycle assessment database shows that most of the social risks derive
from supply sectors.
(Tsalidis, 2022a) Production of industrial water
from seawater
Site specific
a
Weighing the contribution of organizations to S-LCA results provides valuable insights. The
quality and quantity of involved organizations is crucial when the Type I approach is applied.
a
With imaginary life cycle inventory data.
G.A. Tsalidis, D. Xevgenos, R. Ktori etal. Sustainable Production and Consumption 37 (2023)
413
generates brine which is discharged to the sea. The population of
Lampedusa increases greatly, more than 50,000 tourists arrived dur-
ing the holiday season (ANSA, 2020) resulting in an increased elec-
tricity consumption. The industrial water requirements, for the
operation of the power plant, demonstrates a seasonal variation
from approx. 60 m
3
/d in January–February, to 170 m
3
/d during sum-
mer months. To produce this quantity, a reverse osmosis unit with a
capacity of 180 m
3
/day is used, with a micro-filtration unit to pre-
treat seawater. For comparison purposes,thetotalreverseosmosis
capacity to cover the drinking water needs of Lampedusa Island is
approx. 3500 m
3
/day. However, this system falls outside the scope
of our work.
The owner of the power plant aims to replace the industrial water
produced by the reverse osmosis plant with a novel desalination plant
that produces industrial water and co-products. The novel plant has a
capacity of approx. 2.25 m
3
/h and employs seawater, while the capacity
of the multiple effect distillation unit that recovers industrial water is
approx. 2 m
3
/h and its design with a forward-feed multiple-effect distil-
lation configuration is presented elsewhere (Xevgenos et al., 2015).
2.2. Social LCA
The application of S-LCA combined the generation of generic analy-
sis results, literature review results and online survey results to better
identify impact subcategories for the site-specific analysis. Fig. 1 illus-
trates the adopted methodology.
2.2.1. Goal and scope definition
The novel plant regards the desalination of seawater to produce in-
dustrial water for thelocal power plant. Industrial water will replace in-
dustrial water production from the reverse osmosis plant in the power
plant owned also by SELIS Lampedusa S.p.A. Therefore, since both plants
are expected to provide the same function, i.e., supply industrial water
for the SELIS Lampedusa S.p.A. power plant, the selected functional
unit is 1 m
3
of industrial water. Furthermore, sodium chloride, magne-
sium hydroxide, and calcium hydroxide will also be recovered from sea-
water in the novel plant.
The system boundaries of the novel system comprised the following
chemical processes: nanofiltration, magnesium and calcium crystalliza-
tion, multi-effect distillation, thermal crystallization, eutectic freeze
crystallization, and electrodialysis with bipolar membranes. These pro-
cesses consume chemicals and electricity, which were identified after
consultation with the novel plant operators. More details about the
products and the technologies applied to recover such secondary raw
materials can be found in (Culcasi et al., 2022) and (Morgante et al.,
2022). In contrast, the reference system consists of only one process
unit and generates waste (brine) during operation. Fig. 2 shows the
system boundaries for the selected functional unit.
2.2.1.1. Multifunctionality. The novel system is multifunctional because it
produces six co-products in addition to industrial water (Fig. 1). Two of
the six co-products, i.e., hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide, are
internally consumed. Thus, multi-functionality handled here for the
remaining four co-products with economic allocation according to
the ISO standard (International Organization for Standardization,
2006). Table 2 shows the allocation factors and the quantities of
the salts recovered. These quantities have been calculated using a
simulation model for a full-scale plant.
Fig. 1. Block diagram of how the Social LCA was applied.
Fig. 2. Systemboundaries and functional unit of designed systems (FU: 1 m
3
industrial water). (Blue text meansco-products of the novel system). (For interpretation of thereferences to
color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
G.A. Tsalidis, D. Xevgenos, R. Ktori etal. Sustainable Production and Consumption 37 (2023)
414
2.2.1.2. Social impacts. An initial list of pre-selected social impact subcat-
egories was first gathered from a brief literature review on studies deal-
ing with S-LCA from a generic and site-specific perspective for the
chemical industry and circular economy (Tsalidis and Posada, 2021).
For instance, occupational health and safety, employment, and access
to material resources were investigated by half of the S-LCA studies re-
viewed (see Fig. S1 in the Supplementary Material). The pre-selected
list was then consulted for the final selection of social impacts to be
assessed through an online survey distributed between March and
April 2022 (Tsalidis, 2022b) to experts in the water sector. The survey
considered four characteristics of social and governance issues: simplic-
ity, importance, practicality, and uncertainty. The survey was directly
shared with more than 100 experts,and it was completed by 35 respon-
dents from multiple sectors, and primarily European countries. The en-
tire survey can be found in the Supplementary Material. The selected
social impact subcategories for the site-specific analysis are presented
in Table 3, and the impact subcategories with their indicators used in
this study can be found in Table S1. Among the subcategories, only the
“End-of-life responsibility”could not be addressed by all considered
organizations because consumption of electricity does not result in
end-of-life processes.
2.2.1.3. Weighting step. During the weighting step, the practitioner
applies weighting factors (values) to reflect the relative importance of
inventory, impact subcategory, stakeholder category results. These
factors are different from allocation factors because the former regard
organizations and the latter co-products. For instance, inventory results
derived from contributing organizations that are deemed more signifi-
cant will have greater weights, so that their associated results show a
higher contribution in the impact subcategory results. Even when
the step is not mentioned, an implicit form of weighting is still ap-
plied, because all contributing organizations are assumed to have
equal importance (UNEP, 2020). The weighting factors were calcu-
lated based on monetary flows according to prices (see Table 1)
and quantities of consumed and recovered materials (see Tables 1
and S1). Table 4 shows the weighting factors for the novel system,
which are multiplied with impact subcategory scores per organiza-
tion. Weighting factors and equal weighting will be presented with
stacked bar graphs to show the relative contribution of each organi-
zation to the impact scores.
2.2.2. Life cycle inventory
The life cycle inventory for the generic analysis regarded data at na-
tional level and the site-specific analysis regarded qualitative and semi-
quantitative data collection for involved organizations. Data collection
for the generic analysis was performed via public online databases,
such as Eurostat, International Labour Organization and OECD, and it
corresponds to the years 2017–2020, except for“fatal occupational inju-
ries”and “wastewater treatment”which correspond to 2015 due to the
absence or more recent data. The site-specific analysis considered orga-
nizations which are crucial for the operation of the novel plant. These
organizations are: 1) the Plant operator, 2) Chemical supplier A supplies
Table 2
Economic allocation factors of the novel system.
Co-product Price
(€/unit)
Amount per
FU
Economic allocation
factor
Industrial water 1.50 €/m
3
1m
3
11.1 %
Sodium chloride 0.06 €/kg 58.6 kg 26.1 %
Magnesium hydroxide 1.50 €/kg 5.1 kg 56.8 %
Calcium hydroxide 0.18 €/kg 0.7 kg 0.9 %
Sodium sulphate 0.06 €/kg 11.1 kg 4.9 %
Table 3
List of identified impacts subcategories by the literature review, consideredimpact subcategories of site-specific analysis by this study, and employed indicators (UNEP, 2020).
Stakeholder
categories
Impact subcategories Identified
subcategories
Considered
subcategories
Considered indicators
Local community Local employment X X 1) Percentage of workforce hired locally, 2) Strength of policies on local hiring preferences, 3)
Percentage of spending on locally based suppliers
Access to material resources X X 1) Organizations should establish effective policies, waste managementsystems and
procedures to ensure proper management of unavoidable pollution and waste, 2)
Organizations should avoid or minimize the release of hazardous materials, 3) Organizations
and suppliers should meet environmental standards or certification schemes
Safe and healthy living conditions X
Value chain
actors
Promoting social responsibility X 1) An organization should make reasonable efforts to encourage organizations in its
sphere of influence to follow responsible labor practices. 2) Suppliers and sub-contractors
are expected to comply with a code of labor practice or contractual obligations, 3) An
organization may find it useful to participate in, or use tools of, one or more initiatives for
social responsibility
Consumer End-of-life responsibility X 1) Presence of internal management systems ensure that clear information is provided to
consumers on end-of-life options
Workers Health and safety (Workers) X X 1) Occupational accidents, incidents and diseases should benotified and reported, 2) Adequate
general occupational safety measures are taken. 3) Medical assistance and first-aidshouldbe
provided, 4) Access to drinking water should be ensured 5) Documents related to procedures
to detect, prevent, minimize, eliminate, or otherwise respond to potential risks to the health
and safety of personnel should be delivered and available
Hours of work X –
Fair salary X –
Freedom of association and
collective bargaining
X–
Equal opportunities X –
Child labor X –
Society Public commitment to
sustainability issues
X 1) Organizations are encouraged to engage in high quality standards for nonfinancial
information, including environmental and social aspects, as a commitment to the contribution of
sustainable development of the community or society, 2) An organization should, at appropriate
intervals, report about its performance on social responsibility to stakeholders affected
Table 4
Weighting factors for eachorganization of the novel system.
Organizations Factor based on cost
Chemical supplier A 0.12 %
Chemical supplier B 0.53 %
Chemical distributor 0.17 %
Chemical supplier C 0.57 %
Electricity provider 43.5 %
Plant operator 55.1 %
G.A. Tsalidis, D. Xevgenos, R. Ktori etal. Sustainable Production and Consumption 37 (2023)
415
antiscalant employed at the nanofiltration unit, 3) Chemical supplier B
and 4) Chemical distributor manufactures and distributes hydrochloric
acid employed at the nanofiltration and magnesium and calcium crys-
tallization units, respectively, 5) Chemical supplier C supplies sodium
hydroxide employed at the magnesium and calcium crystallization
units, and 6) Electricity provider. According to interviews, only the sup-
plier of hydrochloric acid was not identified. Therefore, Chemical sup-
plier B, which is a large Italian chemical manufacturer, was selected
for the sake of completeness in this study and complemented with a
chemical distributor. The latter shows the effect of the supply chain on
social impacts due to distribution. These organizations were contacted
and information on company conduct was collected via interviews
based on a developed questionnaire and/or sustainability reports. The
questionnaire can be found in the Supplementary Material and the in-
ventory data can be found in Table S3. In contrast, the involved organi-
zations in the existing system are the Chemical supplier A, Electricity
provider, and the Plant operator. Tables 5 and 6 present the organiza-
tions involved and their role in the systems.
2.2.3. Impact assessment
The social life cycle impact assessment (S-LCIA) for the generic
analysis investigated national-level indicators, such as labor rights (free-
dom of association and collective bargaining), fair salary, working hours,
occupational safety, circular economy, employment, degree of integrated
water resources management (IWRM) implementation (used for SDG in-
dicator 6.5.1), basic sanitation activities, annual freshwater withdrawals
(% of internal resources), exports-to-imports ratio, and manufacturing
employment as a proportion of total employment (used for SDG indicator
9.2.2). When it was possible these indicators regarded relevant industrial
sectors to the case study, such as the a) electricity sector due to the local
power plant and electricity consumption, b) manufacturing sector due to
the consumption of chemicals, and c) water supply sector due to the
wastewater treatment and provision of industrial water. Alternatively,
they were assessed on a national scale. In both cases, the European
Union was considered a benchmark to identify social hotspots.
The site-specific S-LCIA was performed with data collection from
questionnaires and/or sustainability reports from the organizations in-
volved. Using the Type 1 SLCIA approach implies defining reference
scales forconsidered subcategories (Traverso et al., 2022). The Subcate-
gory assessment method (SAM) (Ramirez et al., 2014) was used to
perform the site-specific analysis. With SAM qualitative data can be
converted into semiquantitative data. This way, SAM can compare
different data types in a standardized manner and arrive at meaningful
results. For this purpose, score value points were calculated based on
basic requirements which were certifications based on ISO, national
and international agreements. Therefore, the organizational perfor-
mance is calculated at four levels (A = 1, B = 2, C = 3, or D = 4) for
each social impact subcategory based on the achievement of the basic
requirement, as presented in Table 7, and peers' organizational conduct.
Score value A = 1 shows the best social performance while D = 4
shows the worst social performance. The basic requirements and de-
scription of score values per subcategory can be found in Table S2
and Tables S3–10, respectively. Lastly, for both novel system and
existing system, organizational performance was aggregated by sub-
category to assess the systems' social performance. The aggregation
occurred by averaging the indicators results in each subcategory
and organization and summing up the indicators averages to calcu-
late the impact subcategory score.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Generic analysis results
The literature review showed that Workers and Local community are
the most investigated stakeholder categories in S-LCAs of chemical indus-
try cases (Tsalidis and Posada, 2021). Furthermore, the results of the on-
line survey showed that the experts evaluated ‘human health and safety’,
‘human right’,and‘responsibility’as the most important issues, ‘employ-
ment’and ‘training’as the most practical to measure, and ‘human right’,
‘standard of living’,‘corporate ethics’,‘accountability’,and‘responsibility’
as the least practical to measure and most uncertain. These results can be
found in the Supplementary Material. Therefore, social indicators from
Workers, Local community, and Society stakeholder categories were
compared with the average of the European Union to identify social
Table 5
Involved organizations' characteristics in system boundaries development of the novel
system.
Company Product Format for data collection
Plant operator Industrial water Questionnaire
Electricity supplier Electricity
Chemical supplier A Antiscalant Questionnaire and reports
a
Chemical supplier B Hydrochloric acid Reports
b
Chemical distributor Transportation Reports
c
Chemical supplier C Sodium hydroxide Reports
d
a
(Kurita Group, 2021a, 2021b;Kurita Water Industries Ltd., 2018, n.d.).
b
(Altair Chimica S.P.A., 2022a, 2022b, 2021, 2019, 2017, n.d.).
c
(Brenntag, 2021, 2020a, 2020b, 2020c, 2017, 2015, n.d.).
d
(Solvay, 2021;Solvay Chimica Italia S.p.A., 2021;Solvay, n.d.-a, n.d.-b).
Table 6
Involved organizations' characteristics in system boundaries of the existing system.
Company Product Format for data collection
Plant operator Industrial water Questionnaire
Electricity supplier Electricity
Chemical supplier A Antiscalant Questionnaire and reports
a
a
(Kurita Group, 2021a, 2021b;Kurita Water Industries Ltd., 2018, n.d.).
Table 7
Score (value points) for SAM levels.
Value points SAM levels
D = 4 The organization does not comply with the basic requirement in a
positive context
C = 3 The organization does not comply with the basic requirement in a
negative context
B = 2 The organization complies with the basic requirement
A = 1 The organization has positive and proactive behavior beyond the
basic requirement
Fig. 3. Levelof national compliance withlabor rights (freedom of association andcollective
bargaining[FACB]) for Italy and the EU27average, with0 being the best possiblescore (in-
dicating higher levels of compliance for FACB rights) by 2016 (International Labour Orga-
nization, 2022b).
G.A. Tsalidis, D. Xevgenos, R. Ktori etal. Sustainable Production and Consumption 37 (2023)
416
hotspots (Eurostat, 2020a, 2020b, 2020c, 2018;International Labour
Organization, 2022a, 2022b, 2022c;OECD, 2022;Simpson et al., 2020)
to screen impact subcategories for the site specific analysis.
Figs. 3 and 4 refer to indicators of the Workers category. Fig. 3 shows
that the level of national compliance with fundamental labor rights in
Italy which is approximately the same as the European Union average.
The constitutional rights of employment are laid out in the Italian
constitution (International Labour Organization, 2011)whichgivesallcit-
izens the right to work and receive fair pay, and also dictates the maxi-
mum work hours and guarantees paid vacations. Furthermore, Italy's
minimum wage is larger than 68 % and 39 % than the lower and upper
bounds of living wage, respectively. Since 1987, the Italian Department
of Labor limits the maximum work hours to 48 h a week. On average
Italian employees work more than the average of the European Union
(Fig. S2) (OECD, 2022). This corresponds to 2 % higher work hours
annually. However, in particular for the economic sectors related
to the organizations indicated in Table 1, Italian employees work in
average less time than the European average (International Labour
Organization, 2022c), which is an opposite trend compared to the na-
tional average of all sectors included. This difference is minimal for the
manufacturing and electricity sectors, but it is approx. 2 h/week for the
water supply and treatment sector.
In addition, employees in manufacturing, water supply and treatment
sectors work more safely with fewer fatal occupational accidents com-
pared to the average EU27 (Fig. 4). In contrast, fatal occupational
accidents in the Italian electricity sector are more than double the average
in the European Union, which might be attributed to Italian firms (in
general) not complying with tougher safety measures (Giuffrida, 2021).
Furthermore, the Italian average of fatal accidents is higher than the
European average due to the electricity, construction, agriculture, for-
estry, and fishing sectors combined.
Figs. 5–7show hotspot social indicators regarding the Local Commu-
nity and Society stakeholder categories. Similarly, to the indicators ana-
lyzed for the Workers category, the hotspot results for the Local
Community category are compared to those of the European Union aver-
age. In general, in Italy more people use at least basic sanitation services
than the average of the European Union (Fig. 5). The objective of basic
sanitation services is to maintain hygienic conditions, through services
such as garbage collection, industrial/hazardous waste management,
and/or wastewater treatment and disposal. However, the use of waste-
water treatment is lower in Italy than the average in the European
Union, where Italy ranked 11th place in European Union according to
Wolf et al. (2022). Generated Italian urban wastewater is collected by
individual systems, such as domestic treatment plants and septic tanks,
instead of centralized collecting systems and treatment plants. Further-
more, in 342 municipalities, which correspond to approx. 1.4 million
inhabitants (2.4 % of the total population), the urban wastewater treat-
ment service is absent. Advanced purification plants represent 12.9 % of
the total plants, while treating 66.7 % of the actual generated polluting
loads (Italian National Institute of Statistics, 2018). In addition, the Ital-
ian freshwater withdrawal is higher than the European Union average
(Fig. 6). The Italian household water use from public water supply
per citizen was the third highest in Europe, after Greece and Cyprus
(Eurostat, 2022).
Fig. 4. Fataloccupational injuries per 100,000workers in Italy (orange bars) and in theEU27 (blue bars) for relevanteconomic sectorsin 2015 (International Labour Organization, 2022a).
(For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
Fig. 5. Water consumption and treatment based on: a) percentage of citizens using at least basic sanitation services, b) wastewater treatment, and c) annual freshwater withdrawals
(Simpson et al., 2020).
G.A. Tsalidis, D. Xevgenos, R. Ktori etal. Sustainable Production and Consumption 37 (2023)
417
According to SDG target 6.5, by 2030 IWRM should have been im-
plemented at all levels (United Nations, n.d.). Fig. 7 shows that Italy
ranks lower than the European Union average according to the
degree of IWRM implementation (Fig. S3) (Simpson et al., 2020).
Italy scores high according to the UN in indicators “Enabling environ -
ment”,“Institutions and participation”,and“Management instru-
ments”, but much lower in “Financing”.
According to the European Commission (2021), there are 137
productsin the most sensitive ecosystems where the EU is highly reliant
on imports from third-party countries. Therefore, material security is
important, and the EU plan for circular economy has identified
critical raw material, as well as fostering efficient use and recycling.
Fig. 6 shows that there is an increasing trend in using recycled material
and feeding back into the economy both in Italy and Europe. In Italy,
there islarger useof recycled material than the European Union aver-
age. However, Italy was below the EU average in 2018 with respect to
private investments, jobs, and gross value added related to the sec-
tors of the circular economy (Fig. S4) (Eurostat, 2018), while still
being a bigger net importer than EU average by approx. 30 % in
2020 (Eurostat, 2020b)(Fig.S5).
Italian unemployment has risen dramatically in the last 10 years, it
reached of 21 % at a rate of 10 % (Montanini and Barbabella, 2021). In
2020, the unemployment rate decreased in Italy, while the opposite oc-
curred in EU27 (Fig. 7). Nevertheless, the unemployment rate is higher
in Italy than EU27. In particular, Italy hasthe 3rd highest unemployment
rate among the EU27 (after Greece and Spain), reaching 9.2 % (2.3 mil-
lion unemployed people) in 2020, against the EU27 average of 7.1 %
(Eurostat, 2020c).
According to the generic analysis, working conditions, working
hours, and employment in Italy, and minimization of waste produc-
tion while secondary materials are recovered are potential social im-
pacts which should be investigated. Therefore, “Health and Safety
(Workers)”,“Local employment”and “Access to material resources”
will be investigated by the site-specificanalysis.
3.2. Site-specific analysis results
Fig. 8 compares the production of industrial water by the novel sys-
tem with industrial production by the existing reverse osmosis plant.
The industrial water production by the novel plant results in an im-
provement of the six considered social impact subcategories, in the
range of 87 % to 91 % compared to the reverse osmosis plant. One of
the reasons for the lower social impacts of the novel system (which is
a positive feature) is the fact that it generates several co-products and
industrial water has a lower price than the co-products, even though
it is produced in greater quantity. Furthermore, social impacts are
allocated to these co-products with the economic allocation factors
(Table 1). In particular, industrial water is assigned to the secondlargest
allocation factor,and most social impacts areallocated to the recovery of
magnesium hydroxide. Fig. S1 in Supplementary Material shows the
total score if multi-functionality is not considered, and therefore if the
entire social performance was attributed to the industrial water.
For the novel system, “Public commitment to sustainability issues”
and “Local employment”are the impact subcategories that perform
the worst with 1.8 and 1.7, respectively. The “Local employment”
score for each involved organization is slightly higher than level B (on
average) because the organizations did not have policies to hire locally
or spend on local suppliers, which in both cases would benefit the
local community. Among them, only the Chemical supplier A spent a
large percentage (approx. 79 %) on local suppliers. In contrast, other or-
ganizations mentioned that it is of minor significance to their business
model to invest in local or regional purchasing, or they did not have pol-
icies of preferences for hiring employees coming from close by commu-
nities or did not mention criteria for local suppliers in the core suppliers'
assessment.
Regarding “Public commitment to sustainability issues”most orga-
nizations complied with the basic requirement and got a B = 2 score
on both indicators, but none of the organizations exceeded level B on
average. Only, chemical supplier B scored A = 1 on engaging in high
quality standards for nonfinancial information (including environmen-
tal) indicator because they voluntarily joined the European “Eco-
Management and Audit Scheme”to evaluate and improve their envi-
ronmental performance. In contrast, the Electricity provider and Plant
operator scored D = 4 because they do not encourage organizations/
suppliers to engage in high-quality standards for non-financial actions,
including environmental and social aspects, nor produce reports at
appropriate intervals (e.g., yearly).
In contrast, “End of life responsibility”gets the best averaged results
with 0.9 (or B = 2 score when all co-products are considered), due to
Chemical supplier C engaging with major customers on common high
materiality aspects and involved organizations having the certification
for quality management systems. Missing data for the Electricity pro-
vider and Plant operator may have an effect. However, it is not possible
to quantify the “End of life responsibility”for a non-physical product
such as electricity.
The scores of therest of the subcategories range between 1.4 and 1.6,
in descending order, “Promoting social responsibility”,“Occupational
health and safety”,and“Access to material resources”.The“Health
and safety (Workers)”performance is acceptable because organizations
have acquired ISO or Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series
(OHSAS) certifications for occupational health and safety, and work
takes place in Europe where national laws are strict. The Chemical dis-
tributor is an outlier since it does not publicly report occupational acci-
dents neither document procedures related to risks minimization; at
Fig. 6. Percentage of material recycledand feedback into the economy(Eurostat, 2020a)in
2019 and 2020.
Fig. 7. Unemployment rate (%) in Italy and EU27 (Eurostat, 2020c) in 2019 and 2020.
G.A. Tsalidis, D. Xevgenos, R. Ktori etal. Sustainable Production and Consumption 37 (2023)
418
the same time, they were the only organization that involved em-
ployees directly by asking their own safety representatives' opinions.
The “Promoting social responsibility”performance is mainly in-
fluenced by the Electricity provider and Plant operator since no in-
formation could be publicly found about the organizations making
reasonable efforts to encourage organizations in their sphere of in-
fluence to follow responsible labor practices. In contrast, the Chemi-
cal supplier C has the suppliers' code business and suppliers fully
cooperate in ensuring that they can responsibly source minerals
that do not support conflict or human rights abuses. The rest of the
organizations comply with the basic requirements of having a sup-
plier code of conduct where audits are carried out to confirm that
the suppliers respect the code.
Additionally, the “Access to material resources”performance is
affected by the Chemical supplier C, Electricity provider, and Plant
operator. Although the Chemical supplier C acquired ISO 9001 for en-
vironmental management, it is currently being investigated for crim-
inal activity with respect to the disposal of hazardous waste in the
local river in Italy (Martinuzzi and Silver, 2022). The Electricity pro-
vider and Plant operator do not meet environmental standards or
certification schemes because none is acquired. The rest of the orga-
nizations comply with the basic requirement due to the acquisition
of certifications, such as ISO 14001 Environmental management sys-
tems (Kurita Water Industries Ltd., 2018), or explicitly requesting
suppliers to meet environmental criteria (Solvay, n.d.-b) or assessed
with EcoVadis (Brenntag, 2020a).
Lastly, the reference system (i.e., the reverse osmosis and its sup-
pliers) shows similar performances per subcategory because it com-
prises a smaller group of the same organizations with the novel
system. For instance, similar to the novel system, the reference sys-
tem performs the worst in the “Public commitment to sustainability
issues”, and results in the best scores regarding “End-of-life respon-
sibility”and “Health and safety (Workers)”. One worthy difference
regards the “Local employment”and “Promoting social responsibil-
ity”scores. “Local employment”is among the better scores because
Chemical supplier A performs much better than the other organiza-
tions of the novel and reference systems. Similarly, “Promoting social
responsibility”is among the worse scores because the additional
organizations performed relatively better than Chemical supplier A,
Electricity provider, and Plant operator.
As explained in Section 2.2.3, the aggregated scores presented in
Fig. 9 are composed of the contribution from each organization to
each of the six social impact subcategories. Fig. 10 shows a stacked bar
graph of the contribution analysis for equal weighting. All organizations
Fig. 8. Subcategory assessment results of the site-specific analysis, with equal weighting factors.
Fig. 9. Contribution analysis of socialimpact subcategories results for industrial water production (FU: 1 m
3
) via seawaterdesalination with thenovel system under the site-specificanal-
ysis, with equal weighting factors.
G.A. Tsalidis, D. Xevgenos, R. Ktori etal. Sustainable Production and Consumption 37 (2023)
419
contribute to all impact subcategories. The Chemical suppliers A and B,
and the Chemical distributor have comparable contributions to the
Chemical supplier C and Plant operator due to equal weighting factors
and achieving the basic requirement. Contributions range between
13 % and 25 %, i.e., no organization contributes less than 13 %, and no
organization contributes more than 25 % without the use of weighting
factors. The average contribution is 17 % due to having six organization
comprising the system boundaries.
Fig. 10 shows a stacked bar graph of the contribution analysis results
for each of the six subcategories when cost weighting factors are ap-
plied. Due to weighting, the results changed. The results are affected
mainly by the Electricity provider, approx. 44 % (for five out of the six
assessed social impact subcategories), and the Plant operator, approx.
55 % (for five out of the six assessed social impact subcategories). Fur-
thermore, the contribution of the latter is approx.96 % for “End of life re-
sponsibility”due to not assigning a score to the Electricity provider. The
“Promoting social responsibility”and “Public commitment to sustain-
ability issues”scores became higher than Fig. 12 (equal weighting) be-
cause the Electricity provider and Plant operator score relatively low
on these subcategories, while the other subcategories improved or
remained the same. In particular, the “End-of-life responsibility”im-
proved but this is a result of not assigning a score to the Electricity pro-
vider for “End-of-life responsibility”. The low amounts of chemicals
usage (due to recovery), combined with low overall cost contribution
of antiscalant, sodium hydroxide, hydrochloric acid, and distribution
of the latter, resulted in low financial weighting factors for these
suppliers making their contributions to the aggregated social im-
pacts virtually irrelevant (in the range of approx. 0.1 %–0.6 %) for
all assessed subcategories.
3.3. Sensitivity analysis of uncertain parameters
3.3.1. Effects of major contributors
Among the considered organizations, the Chemical supplier B and
Chemical distributor were the only proxy organizations used due to
not identifying a supplier of hydrochloric acid during the interviews.
Chemical supplier B was sele cted because it is a large Italian chemical
manufacturer, and the Chemical distributor is a large German com-
pany that distributes chemicals with offices and warehouses in vari-
ous European locations (Italy included). Both organizations and the
Chemical supplier A contribute to the subcategory results when
equal weighting is used. However, when financial weighting factors
are used, these organizations do not affect the results due to the
low amount of hydrochloric acid and antiscalant purchased. There-
fore, a sensitivity analysis is focused on the Chemical supplier C, Elec-
tricity provider and Plant operator.
The Electricity provider and Plant operator perform in general
worse than the rest organizations because of their size and no promo-
tion of social responsibility to their value chain actors. However, both
organizations perceive social responsibility as an important aspect,
thus, a future development of suppliers' code of conduct and acquisition
of ISO certifications could improve the social performance of the novel
system. In addition, the Chemical supplier C is under investigation for
criminal activity (Martinuzziand Silver, 2022) affecting its score on “Ac-
cess to material resources”.Fig. 11 shows how the social impacts assess-
ment for the six subcategories would result, under the site-specific
analysis and with equal weighting factors, if the Chemical supplier C is
found not guilty and if it improves its conductin Italy, and if the Electric-
ity provider and Plant operator will develop a suppliers' code of conduct
based on human rights, occupational health and safety, and acquire
ISO 45001 and 9001. Fig. 11 illustrates this effect on the subcategories
whether the Electricity provider and Plant operator, and Chemical sup-
plier C improve develop policies and improve their conduct, respec-
tively, i.e., a decrease on the impacts, with rectangles with straight
diagonal lines. The score of “Access to material resources”is reduced
by 16 % mainly due to Chemical supplier C improvement. “Promoting
social responsibility”and “Public commitment to sustainability issues”
are reduced by 14 % and 25 %, respectively, mainly due to the Electricity
provider and Plant operator. Therefore, there is significant room for im-
provement for both Electricity provider and Plant operator.
3.3.2. Effect of economic allocation factors
The selected prices of the products correspond to the desired quali-
ties. However, the targeted quality of magnesium hydroxide as a prod-
uct of the novel systems may be challenging or result in additional costs
due to other consumables needed. Therefore, in this section, we analyze
how sensitive the impact subcategory results are with respect to the re-
covery of magnesium hydroxide. The price of recovered magnesium hy-
droxide was reduced significantly in case the highest purity cannot be
achieved in the recovery steps and some impurities may still exist.
Therefore, its price was reduced from 1.5 €/kg to 0.5 €/kg. This change
resulted in an increase in the economic allocation factors for industrial
water and other co-products (i.e., sodium chloride, calcium hydroxide,
sodium sulphate). In particular, for industrial water the economic allo-
cation factor increased from 11.1 % to 17.9 %. Furthermore, the new eco-
nomic allocation factors are 42.1 %, 30.5 %, 1.5 %, and 8.0 % for sodium
chloride, magnesium hydroxide, calcium hydroxide, and sodium
sulphate, respectively. The new allocation factorfor industrial water re-
sulted in an increase of all impact subcategories by 62 %. Fig. 12 shows
that there are still social benefits even when lower quality magnesium
is recovered.
Fig. 10. Contribution analysis of social impact subcategories resultsfor industrial water production of the novel system (FU: 1 m
3
) via seawaterdesalination with the novel system under
the site-specificanalysis,withfinancial weighting factors.
G.A. Tsalidis, D. Xevgenos, R. Ktori etal. Sustainable Production and Consumption 37 (2023)
420
3.4. Limitations
The results of this study provide a social performance assessment of
the organizations involved in the supply chain of the analyzed product
line. A limitation is the number of investigated impact subcategories. Al-
though these impact subcategories were considered the most relevant
for the case based on generic analysis, literature review, and online sur-
vey, these six subcategories still represent a small fraction of all subcat-
egories in the Guidelines. Furthermore, when data collection with the
questionnaire was not possible, data was collected from public annual
reports focusing on specific plants where consumed chemicals were
manufactured. On the other hand, when the questionnaire was distrib-
uted, only oneperson from the organization filled it in. Both facts consti-
tute limitations due to the potential omission of plant-specificdataand
personal bias. However, it is impossible to include all impact subcate-
gories in the assessment due to data needs, and data collection from
more than one person in an organization is challenging when the
organization is not directly collaborating with the S-LCA practitioners.
The S-LCA method comes with a significant limitation when site-
specific analysis is performed; no database can be built for site-specific
analysis. This results in great data needs for the S-LCA practitioners.
Lastly, a major limitation is allocation. In environmental-LCA, handling
allocation is a standard solution to allocate system inputs and outputs
to co-products. However, in the case of S-LCA, allocating social effects
to co-products may not be needed. The Guidelines mention that the al-
location depends on the nature and scope of the social data. For
instance, allocation may be irrelevant when assessing indicators and
impacts that are not measured at the product level (e.g., external effects,
such as disrespect ofindigenous rights, delocalization oflocal communi-
ties, etc.) (UNEP, 2020). Fig. S1 shows the S-LCA results without apply-
ing allocation. In this case, and since the novel system consists of more
involved organizations, the organizational-based approach results in
worse social performance than the reference system. Finally, the selec-
tion of allocation type will affect the social impact scores. This study ap-
plied economic allocation because one product exiting the water plant
gate is in liquid form, while the rest are solids.Instead, if mass allocation
were applied then according to Table 2, 99.5 % of the social impacts
would be allocated to industrial water and the results would be very
similar to Fig. S1.
4. Conclusions
This study assesses the social impacts of a novel desalination plant to
produce industrial water from seawater, and also compares the social
Fig. 12. Sensitivity analysis of subcategory assessment resultsfor lower prices of magnesium hydroxideof the site-specificanalysis for industrial waterproduction of thenovel system (FU:
1m
3
) via seawater desalination with the novel system under the site-specific analysis, with equal weighting factors.
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
1.2
1.4
1.6
1.8
2.0
Local
employment
Access to
material
resources
Promong
social
responsibility
End-of-life
responsibility
Health and
safety
(Workers)
Public
commitment to
sustainability
issues
Score values
Decrease in impacts Plant operator Electricity provider
Chemical supplier C Chemical distributor Chemical Supplier B
Fig. 11. Sensitivity analysis of socialimpact subcategories results forindustrial water production of the novelsystem (FU: 1 m
3
) via seawater desalination withthe novel system under the
site-specific analysis, with equal weighting factors, and decrease in impacts (rectangle with straight diagonal lines).
G.A. Tsalidis, D. Xevgenos, R. Ktori etal. Sustainable Production and Consumption 37 (2023)
421
impacts of the novel plant with respect to a conventional industrial
water plant based on reverse osmosis, at Lampedusa (Italy) through
the application of the social-LCA method. Surveying water experts and
the literature review in combination with the generic analysis provided
insights regarding which impact subcategories should be selected for
the site-specific analysis. The novel desalinatio n plant provides social
benefits even if the recovered products will be sold at a lower value
than expected and two are the stakeholders which contribute to
the results highly.
The generic analysis showed that wastewater treatment in Italy is
underdeveloped, and water scarcity can become a serious problem
for Italy. Additionally, Italian employees work less but less safely
than European average, and the Italian economy is still a net im-
porter of goods. Therefore, for S-LCA case studies of the Italian
water supply and treatment, “Local employment”,“Access to mate-
rial resources”and “Occupational health and safety”subcategories
should be investigated.
The site-specific analysis showed that the novel system results in so-
cial benefits with respect to the reference system for all impact subcat-
egories due to co-production. The use of weighting factors shows that
two organizations are the main contributors to social performance
(i.e., Electricity provider and Plant operator). Furthermore, a sensitivity
analysis showed that improving specific aspects of the conduct of these
organizations can result in benefits in “Promoting social responsibility”,
“Public commitment to sustainability issues”, and “Access to material
resources”. According to the generic and site-specific results, the Plant
operator and the Electricity provider should be certified for health and
safety of employees.
It is recommended to aim and collect more site-specific data from
the involved organizations in the system boundaries, and to develop
scenarios for the supply of hydrochloric acid based on former suppliers
of the Plant operator. This way, the used S-LCA results can provide addi-
tional valuable insights to decision makers of the Plant operator and
Electricity provider in order to select a supplier that can help to improve
the social performance of the novel system. Finally, due to the fact that
the novel plan provides social benefits due to co-production, it is recom-
mended to investigate further how to apply the typeI approach of S-LCA
to linear production systems as they become more circular.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank the European Commission for supporting the
activities carried out in the framework of the WATER-MINING
(project under grant agreement No. 869474). Furthermore, the au-
thors would like to thank Gabriele Musacchia from SELIS Lampedusa
S.p.A. for responding to the questionnaire, the anonymous water
experts who responded to the online Water Mining survey. The
opinions expressed in this document reflect only the views of the
authors and do not reflect the European Commission's opinions.
The European Commission is not responsible for any use that may
be made of the information it contains.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.
org/10.1016/j.spc.2023.03.017.
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