Utrecht University: Introducing innovative full pricing: Oiconomy Pilot launched

Ever imagined a real price economy where all the prices of products represent the ‘full costs’ of production? Also including the costs of preventing child labor, climate change, biodiversity loss, corruption and so on? And thus, enabling the most sustainable product to be the cheapest? The Oiconomy Price methodology has so. The Oiconomy Price, developed by Dr Pim Croes and Dr Walter J.V. Vermeulen (Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development), measures the cost distance to a fully sustainable alternative for the product, incorporating all triple-P aspects (Planet, People and Prosperity) of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. It applies to the full value chain of products.

In collaboration with the Dutch government (Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland, RVO) Utrecht University now started a pilot project with the aim to advance the Oiconomy Price Methodology. In this pilot, three companies are going to measure full costs of their product. This starts with an assessment of the downstream supply chain actors all the way up to their own organization. The output will reveal the aggregable calculation of preventative costs for all sustainability aspects along the products lifecycle. You can read more about the method here