Eco costs of businesses

A few days ago, the U.S. Agriculture Secretary announced that there will be a new office in the USDA called the Office of Ecosystem Services and Markets. This office will assist the Secretary of Agriculture in the development of new technical guidelines and science-based methods to assess environmental service benefits which will in turn promote markets for ecosystem services including carbon trading to mitigate climate change

Ecosystem services, as World Changing site explains, are a means of connecting economic systems to ecological systems. All businesses are in some way connected to nature and it makes sense to put a price on the kind of service provided for free till now. When these environmental costs and benefits are missed out, companies are actually taking a risk in evaluating future costs and benefits associated with a project. By placing monetary values on the services that ecosystems provide, decision making becomes more complete.

When going in for large-scale mining, for instance, a company is investing in its future by taking the sustainability aspects into account while drawing a balance sheet. For a company that depends on timber for its products should be looking at long-term afforestation plans. Even a thermal plant stands to gain in making sure that the use of water or treatment of its waste is done in ways that are ecologically sound in addition to making economic sense.

For businesses not directly involved too, as the article suggests, healthy employees ensure high productivity. And healthy surroundings alone can ensure healthy people. The quality of air, water, etc comes into question.

We have a MoEF which basically is empowered to ensure that projects do not harm the environment in any way. But as EIAs in the country have shown, other interests more often take over. Is it a good idea to factor in eco costs into businesses? Do we have any standards? How does one quantify ecosystem services?