The cost to society, measured in physical units.
True Cost Index reports measurable physical quantities associated with ordinary things: carbon dioxide, water, land, energy, particulates, and selected pollutants. It does not convert those quantities into dollars.
What it is
True Cost Index defines the true cost of a thing as a vector of measured physical quantities. The result is not one score. It is a set of measurements.
A gallon of diesel, a kilowatt-hour of electricity, a chicken, and a dozen eggs each carry physical quantities that can be measured using lifecycle assessment literature.
What it is not
True Cost Index is not a dollar-denominated externality calculator. It does not say what a ton of carbon, a polluted river, or a health effect is “worth.”
Those conversions require editorial judgment. This site stops before that step.
Launch examples
The first four worked examples were chosen for methodological breadth and relatively low partisan baggage.
Liquid fossil fuel Natural gas kWh
Electricity generation Chicken
Single-output food Eggs
Continuous animal product