The introduction of a novel technology can have profound impacts on nature and society. Within PROSUITE, a general methodology is developed in order to assess the sustainability impacts of a novel technology, including a methodology for evaluating on the impacts on society and social well-being. The approach includes the methodology for modelling the life cycle, guidelines for the performance assessment, description and operationalization of indicators, aggregation along the life cycle, data collection and a method for dealing with data uncertainty. Social impacts include impacts on knowledge-intensive jobs, total employment, risk perception, possibility of misuse, child labour, forced labour, trust in risk information, stakeholder involvement, long-term control functions, regional income inequalities and global inequalities.

social LCA; social assessment; technology assessment; PROSUITE