What needs to be improved in existing assessment approaches?

Existing sustainability assessments for products are mostly based on generic impact data. 

Results are often not aggregable or comparable, addressing different scopes and complex to be obtained and used by businesses.

Assessment methods usually lack the integration of social, economic and environmental aspects, as stipulated in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Major causes of this are the lack of a harmonised standard for what and how to measure, the lack of data from the upstream supply chains and the lack of well-defined targets for social aspects.

The Oiconomy system is a completely new type of product sustainability assessment based on life cycle thinking 

The system copies normal economic price buildup in the supply chain for the hidden costs of preventing environmental, social and economic harm, inflicted as consequence of the production, use and disposal of the product.

The actors themselves make the assessments and calculations and transfer the result (ESCUs) to the next actor in the supply chain.

The methodology and data were based on the EcoCost system, providing marginal preventative costs for environmental sustainability aspects and a methodology to follow for social aspects.

For the determination of well-defined targets for social and economic aspects, the following steps are followed, depending on data availability:

1. If available, based on internationally established conventions and targets.
2. Based on a benchmark of the ways to handle an aspect in the 20% highest performing functioning democratic countries.
3. Without the feasibility of methods 1 or 2, based on the determination of a management quality score, rooted in the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) principles.

When self-provided (“foreground”) data are not available, the system provides default (“background”) data.

Trustworthiness of the data will be obtained by verification in the future (and probably certification through a standard).