Forming the Nucleus of a Novel Ecological Accounting System: The myEcoCost Approach

Abstract:

The limited data availability, transparency and harmonisation in environmental assessments of products are bottlenecks for improved environmental and sustainability governance. Despite the progressive developments of information and communication systems, reliable, accurate, up-to-date data for assessing the resource use of products and services is still lacking. Resource accounting systems often have limited scope on single companies, processes or products. This paper presents an approach for an automated bottom-up accounting system for measuring resource efficiency at product and service level. It is based on a global collaborative network of resource accounting nodes connected for the accounting of natural resources use for products and services. Using an Internet-based service-oriented architecture, relevant and timely data is passed from supplier to customer recursively through the whole value chain to produce an “ecoCost” for each product or service. This conceptual paper reflects first experiences from partners of the myEcoCost project funded by European Commission (www.myecocost.com).

• Periodical: Key Engineering Materials (Volume 572)
• Pages: 78-83
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/KEM.572.78
• Online since: September 2013
• Authors: Justus von Geibler, Klaus Wiesen, Robert Stewart Mostyn, Markus Werner, Nuria Riera, Dai Zhong Su, Sten Erik Björling, Tom Domen, Jonathan Smith, Andrew Jenkins, Stefanie Kresse
• Keywords: Accounting Framework, Ecological Costs, myEcoCost, Natural Resources, Resource Efficiency

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