What is "eco-costs"

right|thumb|upright=3|Fig 1: Calculation structure of the eco-costs 2012. Eco-costs are a measure to express the amount of environmental burden of a product on the basis of prevention of that burden. They are the costs which should be made to reduce the environmental pollution and materials depletion in our world to a level which is in line with the carrying capacity of our earth.
For example: for each 1000 kg CO emission, one should invest €135,- in offshore windmill parks (and the other CO reduction systems at that price or less). When this is done consequently, the total CO emissions in the world will be reduced by 65% compared to the emissions in 2008. As a result, global warming will stabilise. In short: "the eco-costs of 1000kg CO are € 135,-".
Similar calculations can be made on the environmental burden of acidification, eutrification, summer smog, fine dust, eco-toxicity, and the use of metals, rare earth, fossil fuels, water and land (nature). As such, the eco-costs are virtual costs, since they are not yet integrated in the real life costs of current production chains (Life Cycle Costs). The eco-costs should be regarded as hidden obligations.
The eco-costs of a product are the sum of all eco-costs of emissions and use of resources during the life cycle " from cradle to cradle". The widely accepted method to make such a calculation is called Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), which is basically a mass and energy balance, defined in the 14040 and ISO 14044.

The practical use of eco-costs is to compare the sustainability of several product types with the same functionality. The advantage of eco-costs is that they are expressed in a standardized monetary value which appears to be easily understood ‘by instinct’. Also the calculation is transparent and relatively easy, compared to damage based models which have the disadvantage of extremely complex calculations with subjective weighting of the various aspects contributing to the overall environmental burden.

The system of eco-costs is part of the bigger model of the Ecocosts/Value Ratio, EVR