New Global Standard Counts the Cost of Environmental Damage

Environmental damage costs society enormous amounts of money - and often leaves future generations to foot the bill.  Now, a new ISO standard will help companies valuate and manage the impact of their environmental damage, by providing a clear figure for the cost of their goods and services to the environment.

We know what goods and services cost us, but what does the environment pay?  For many years now, this question has been the focus of several global companies and researchers at the Swedish Life Cycle Center, a competence center hosted by Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden.  For as long as 30 years, they have been using the so-called 'EPS tool ' to place a monetary value on environmental damage.

Over the past three years, Bengt Steen, Professor Emeritus at Chalmers, has led the development of a new ISO standard for monetary valuation.  The work has been in collaboration with AB Volvo, Essity, Nouryon (formerly Akzo Nobel Specialty Chemicals), and the IVL Swedish Environmental Institute.  The initiative was taken by Swedish Life Cycle Center.

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