Illustration David Alabo

“Sustainability in global value chains is everyone’s business: farmers, big companies, entrepreneurs, local governments,… But what about us, consumers? How can we support sustainability efforts with our purchases? Is paying more for a chocolate bar or a cup of cappuccino the solution? “You’re asking the wrong question”, rebuts Utrecht food scientist Pim Croes. “We should not pay more for sustainable coffee or chocolate. To the contrary, the most sustainable option should be the cheapest for the consumer”, he asserts. If only we paid the real price, that is.

“The prices we pay today for most products rarely reflect their true cost. Think of the costs for the use of water, pesticides, CO₂ emissions, deforestation, or child labour. Those extra costs are usually ‘hidden’ and unaccounted for in the finished product’s price tag”, explains Croes. “But make no mistake. As citizens, we are paying that price daily in the form of social and environmental damages.”

So Croes, together with environmental scientist Walter Vermeulen, came up with an idea that can revolutionise global supply chains: a methodology to calculate the ‘real price’ of daily products such as coffee and chocolate. “It’s a new lifecycle assessment method that calculates the price of the fully sustainable version of a product. This incorporates the social and environmental costs throughout the value chain into the market price.”

The method works to reward the prevention of ecological or social damage along the entire supply chain. “Imagine farmers lack the money to invest in planting native trees to make their beans fully sustainable. Those beans would carry Eco Social Cost Units (ESCUs), which the next link in the chain would have to account for”, explains Croes. “And so, every social or ecological externality is carried down the supply chain to the consumer, resulting in the real price of a coffee pack.”

If everyone in the supply chain, from farmers to roasters to supermarkets, would use this new lifecycle assessment method to allocate the actual price for the next link in the chain, enough money reaches those that need it to invest in preventing or reducing their environmental impact and improving social livelihoods. And it can help you, as a consumer, choose ethically sound products by seeing their real price.” Radical transparency.

If this real-price economy – the Oiconomy – is taken up and recognised, Croes forecasts, it wouldn’t make sense anymore for us not to buy the sustainable product.”