The panel recommendations were to adapt the effort according to the pursued
goal of the study. An iterative approach is highly recommended in order to first
conduct a streamlined assessment, and then implement more complex methods
when necessary.
The company acceptance relies on the communication of monetized results since
monetization could be used at various level in companies, the targeted audience is
diverse and the media shall be adapted in consequence. An exhaustive state of the
art on methodological issues related to monetary valuation and on the way to
interpret the monetised indicators would be valuable to the practitioners.
One remaining challenge also stands on the capability to introduce these cost and
social information in decision making and performance monitoring. This raises here
a new question grounded in the financial accounting. How to integrate costs and
revenues which are not paid or perceived directly? Shall external cost performance
be a key indicator and for whom? How to transfer the benefits and positive impact
to the contributors?
As a final conclusion, despite these raising questions the panel underlined the
remaining researches to be carried on, and agreed that environmental and social cost
assessment, already today, have a major ability to reinforce decision making.
Acknowledgements We would like to thank the panel for their contribution: Mr. Chanoine
(Deloitte), Mr. Sonnen (Ecomatters), Mr. Van Gelder (BASF) and Mr. Wathelet (SOLVAY).
References
1. ExternE is the acronym for “External Costs of Energy” and a synonym for a series of projects
starting from early 90s till 2005, http://www.externe.info/externe_d7.
2. De Nocker L, Panis L, Torfs R, ExternE: A European accounting framework for Life Cycle
Impact Assessment and external costs of transport, SAE Technical Paper, No. 2000-01-1480,
2000.
3. German Federal Environmental Agency (UBA), 2007: “Economic Valuation of Environmental
Damage—Methodological Convention for Estimates of Environmental Externalities”, 2013:
update. http://www.umweltbundesamt.de/publikationen/economic-valuation-of-environmentaldamage-02018/19:%202nd%20update.
4. Ministère de l’Environnement, de l’énergie et de la mer, Monétarisation des biens et services
environnementaux: L’analyse de cycle de vie, questions et enjeux autour de sa monétarisation,
2017.
5. Ecomatters, 2016. Ecomatters, Human capital creation along the value chain, 2016), www.
ecomatters.nl/human-capital.
6. Weidema B-P, Pizzol M, Brandão M, The Use of Monetary Valuation of Environmental
Impacts in Life Cycle Assessment: State of the art, strengths and weaknesses, SCORE-LCA
report Nb 2012-03, 2013.
7. Steen B, 2015. Environmental Priority Strategy (EPS) system, Chalmers University, 2015),
http://www.ivl.se/english/startpage/pages/focus-areas/environmental-engineering-and-sustainableproduction/lca/eps.html.
8. SOLVAY 2017 http://www.solvay.com/en/binaries/Solvay-SPM-Guide-154709.pdf.
Discussion Panel—Assessment of Externalities …
395
goal of the study. An iterative approach is highly recommended in order to first
conduct a streamlined assessment, and then implement more complex methods
when necessary.
The company acceptance relies on the communication of monetized results since
monetization could be used at various level in companies, the targeted audience is
diverse and the media shall be adapted in consequence. An exhaustive state of the
art on methodological issues related to monetary valuation and on the way to
interpret the monetised indicators would be valuable to the practitioners.
One remaining challenge also stands on the capability to introduce these cost and
social information in decision making and performance monitoring. This raises here
a new question grounded in the financial accounting. How to integrate costs and
revenues which are not paid or perceived directly? Shall external cost performance
be a key indicator and for whom? How to transfer the benefits and positive impact
to the contributors?
As a final conclusion, despite these raising questions the panel underlined the
remaining researches to be carried on, and agreed that environmental and social cost
assessment, already today, have a major ability to reinforce decision making.
Acknowledgements We would like to thank the panel for their contribution: Mr. Chanoine
(Deloitte), Mr. Sonnen (Ecomatters), Mr. Van Gelder (BASF) and Mr. Wathelet (SOLVAY).
References
1. ExternE is the acronym for “External Costs of Energy” and a synonym for a series of projects
starting from early 90s till 2005, http://www.externe.info/externe_d7.
2. De Nocker L, Panis L, Torfs R, ExternE: A European accounting framework for Life Cycle
Impact Assessment and external costs of transport, SAE Technical Paper, No. 2000-01-1480,
2000.
3. German Federal Environmental Agency (UBA), 2007: “Economic Valuation of Environmental
Damage—Methodological Convention for Estimates of Environmental Externalities”, 2013:
update. http://www.umweltbundesamt.de/publikationen/economic-valuation-of-environmentaldamage-02018/19:%202nd%20update.
4. Ministère de l’Environnement, de l’énergie et de la mer, Monétarisation des biens et services
environnementaux: L’analyse de cycle de vie, questions et enjeux autour de sa monétarisation,
2017.
5. Ecomatters, 2016. Ecomatters, Human capital creation along the value chain, 2016), www.
ecomatters.nl/human-capital.
6. Weidema B-P, Pizzol M, Brandão M, The Use of Monetary Valuation of Environmental
Impacts in Life Cycle Assessment: State of the art, strengths and weaknesses, SCORE-LCA
report Nb 2012-03, 2013.
7. Steen B, 2015. Environmental Priority Strategy (EPS) system, Chalmers University, 2015),
http://www.ivl.se/english/startpage/pages/focus-areas/environmental-engineering-and-sustainableproduction/lca/eps.html.
8. SOLVAY 2017 http://www.solvay.com/en/binaries/Solvay-SPM-Guide-154709.pdf.
Discussion Panel—Assessment of Externalities …
395