Decision making
The impact of economic and political decisions on the environment is often neglected. Several reasons explain this :
- Legislation and regulation remains incomplete and does not guarantee that the external environmental and social costs generated by economic activities are considered as part of the decision making process.
- The consequences of environmental deterioration are indirect, they are sometimes scientifically difficult to quantify and only apparent long after the actual damage occurs.
- The value of environmental benefits is difficult to quantify given the absence of market pricing, therefore making it complicated to reflect in financial accounting.
Since the first studies by the World Bank at the end of the ’90s, ecosys has acquired significant experience in valuing environmental impacts in monetary terms. From a methodological point of view, our approach is to develop decision making tools (cost-benefit analysis, multi-criteria analysis) which take into account not only the usual costs and benefits, but also a quantification of the environmental and social aspects of any project.
Our expertise and services:
- Economic analysis of the environment
- Economic valuation of environmental damage, and priority setting for remediation measures on a micro, meso and macro economical scale
- Cost-benefit analysis : net present value, return on investment and payback period
- Multi-criteria analysis
- Assessment of the cost of failing to consider environmental and social impacts
- Valuing environmental and social benefits generated by measures and strategies for sustainable development
- Economic analysis of remediation measures (avoiding/repairing environmental damage)