What are the sustainability principles guiding social life cycle assessment studies?

Sustainable development (SD) and sustainability are considered the main goals of life cycle (LC) methodologies. This paper has a double purpose: first, to reflect upon the methodological diversity in social life cycle assessment (SLCA) approaches by paying attention to the theoretical underpinnings in terms of sustainability and SD concepts; secondly, to investigate possible links between the sustainability principles and the different type of SLCA studies. Therefore, a literature review has been conducted to investigate which have been the main sustainability and/or SD definitions that guided the authors in their LC studies and methodological proposals. Results showed that most of the references to sustainability and SD concepts are ascribable to three main schools of thoughts. We deduced a link between these main approaches of SD and the different types of SLCA, resulting in a different management of the research process (theory mobilised, methodology used, results provided).