Towards Harmonised S-LCA: Identification of Relevant Stakeholder and Social Impact Subcategories for Autonomous Electric Car Sharing Fleets

Abstract

As the automotive industry shifts towards sustainable transportation solutions, autonomous electric car-sharing fleets offer promise in curbing carbon emissions and mitigating traffic congestion. Recognizing the need to account for social impacts, a comprehensive Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) is essential to assess and manage their social impacts. However, there's a significant challenge due to the lack of standardized methods for S-LCA, particularly for autonomous electric car-sharing fleets (AECSF). To address this challenge, this research article proposes a standardized S-LCA framework, focusing on identifying relevant stakeholder categories and their associated social-impact subcategories for AECSF. The framework incorporates the goal and scope components of S-LCA to define assessment boundaries and objectives. The research method ology adopts a multi-stakeholder approach in three stages. First, a thorough literature review examines stakeholder and social-impact categories for autonomous electric car-sharing. Second, online surveys involve individuals and experts representing stakeholder categories from transportation, automotive, sustainability, and social sciences to gather insights on these aspects. Finally, quantitative analysis validates the findings. The study identifies five primary stakeholders: users, local communities, value chain actors, society, and workers. Additionally, it pinpoints social-impact categories and sub-categories relevant to AECSF, encompassing accessibility and affordability, safety and cyber-security, and employment and labor conditions. These findings lay a foundation for standardizing S-LCA for autonomous electric car-sharing fleets, supporting future research and development of a comprehensive framework tailored to this field's unique characteristics and challenges. Such a framework can aid decision-making, guide sustainable development, and enhance social well-being in the emerging realm of autonomous electric car-sharing.