The S-LCA Applied in a Research Project: “Smallholders Including Farmers” Impact Subcategory

To overcome the difficulties of the market and some supply chains’ organic production being more efficient and competitive, we contributed to the research project “Innovations in organic agriculture to improve the sustainability of Apulian farms for cereals and industrial crops.” We aimed to define an agroecological model based on crop rotation of the main Apulian herbaceous crops: industrial tomatoes, durum wheat, and legumes. We used this model to measure organic crop sustainability. We assessed social sustainability using the social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) methodology, which envisages the LCA approach. After the first United Nation Environment Program (UNEP) / Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) guidelines were published in 2009, they were updated in 2020. Furthermore, these guidelines were integrated with methodological sheets in 2013 and 2021. However, these approaches do not include reference scales with specific indicators to assess every subcategory’s impact. We aimed to define the application of the S-LCA methodology to evaluate the new impact subcategory “Smallholders including farmers” (stakeholder “Workers”), introduced in the new 2020 guidelines. We also aimed to elaborate on the relative reference scale to be adopted in the impact assessment.