Reasons for Social Impacts Assessment of Chemical Production and Products

Abstract

From the point of view of the social impacts, chemical companies and chemicals are considered by a part of the society as something “artificial”, unhealthy, and their production is, apart from the potential risk of an accident, accompanied by emissions of pollutants into the environment, but also by a number of effects giving odor or visually negative impression. The growing interest of the important stakeholders in the problems of social impacts of the produced chemicals, have brought a lot of questions concerning the importance of stakeholders from the perspective of social issues. The main objective of the contribution is to identify the main reasons / benefits of evaluation the social and socio-economic impacts of chemical products and production from the point of view of company as well as stakeholders. Based on theoretical basis concerning practices and specific circumstances in stakeholder theory and social impact assessment processes, a primary research was realized with managers of chemical companies through simple questionnaire. The most important findings related with identified the most important social impacts perceived by company are closer analysed and discussed. Based on identified social impacts was deduced the most frequently mentioned reasons for evaluating social and socio-economic impacts and social issues. Reasons for considering social impacts as an important element in decision-making process are still less known and underestimated and this contribution helps to improve understanding the importance of social impacts for the company and their relation to stakeholders.