Background Reading

These are the materials provided to workshop participants.

If you're interested, you can explore more TCA resources on the Accelerator website.

What is True Cost Accounting?

True Cost Accounting (TCA) is an evolving holistic and systemic approach to measure and value the positive and negative environmental, social, health and economic costs and benefits to facilitate business, consumer, investor and/or policy decisions.

This definition was the result of a consensus-driven process by conveners of the UN Food Systems Summit independent dialogue on TCA in 2021, building on earlier work establishing the core elements of TCA via the UN Environment Programme’s comprehensive 2018 TCA framework.

UN Food Systems Summit Dialogue
True Cost Accounting for Food Systems: Redefining Value to Transform Decision-making
Technical Briefing Note (2021)

UN Environment Programme TEEBAgriFood Framework (2018)

FAO Policy Brief: Revealing the hidden costs of agrifood systems to enhance their value (2023)

The True Cost Accounting Agrifood Handbook: Practical guidelines for the food and farming sector on impact measurement, valuation and reporting (2022)

TEEBAgriFood Operational Guidelines for Business

The Current Field of True Cost Accounting: An Analysis of the Similarities and Differences of True Cost Accounting Initiatives