Piloting Oiconomy Pricing: First experiences of producers applying full cost sustainability assessment of products

The Oiconomy Pricing approach provides an innovative way of measuring and communicating (un)sustainability of products. It expresses (un)sustainability in a virtual monetary unit, the 'Eco Social Cost Unit' (ESCU). As closely as possible, the ESCU score of a product equals the externalities, which can also be described as hidden preventative costs. In the context of product sustainability assessment, these are the costs that need to be spent to avoid any damage to the environment or society that the product causes during its entire lifecycle. This paper presents the result of a pilot project with three companies operating in global value chains, applying the Oiconomy Sustainability Assessment Tool. The project encouraged end-producer companies and their value chain partners to calculate the hidden preventative costs and jointly implement sustainable solutions. This article presents the results of these calculations for the three cases, the experiences of the companies and the implications for the market introduction of the tool.

Automated summary

The Oiconomy Pricing approach introduces the concept of 'Eco Social Cost Unit' (ESCU) to measure and communicate the (un)sustainability of products. By quantifying the externalities or hidden preventative costs, the ESCU score represents the product's (un)sustainability. This article presents the results of a pilot project in three global value chain companies, which applied the Oiconomy Sustainability Assessment Tool to calculate these hidden costs and implement sustainable solutions.