Weighting

Bo P. Weidema

Chapter 189 in Elgar Encyclopedia of Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment, 2026, pp 711-714 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Weighting, also known in economic science as “valuation”, is a procedure to express the relative value of a specific marginal impact in a common unit in order to allow comparisons and trade-offs across different impact categories. While valuation is most often associated with the concept of “weak sustainability” due to its facilitation of trade-offs, valuation is equally relevant to assess the choices made within a “strong sustainability” perspective. Value can be expressed in units of human well-being or in purchasing-power-corrected monetary units with equity-weights to account for the difference in utility for different recipients of the same amount of money. Four recommended methods are described that adhere to the three principles from welfare economics (representativeness, equality, and bias correction) applied in ISO 14008. In addition to these four recommended methods, a number of other methods in practical use are described, with explanations for why they are not recommended.

Keywords: Valuation; Marginal impacts; Common unit; Weak and strong sustainability; ISO 14008; Willingness-to-pay (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035309887
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