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Nederlands

Go to Dutch letter December 2011

MUNDEO

Transparency as accelerator for sustainability

Imperfection

Our economic system that is based on profit making and the free market mechanism, has brought us

tremendous development and progress. It created a large and powerful global economy. However, in

this economic system an imperfection occurred. It does not take into account the limits of our planet.

Moreover, earnings are reported incomplete, because environmental and social costs are kept outside

the books.

Limits to non-sustainable growth
In recent decades a growing tension had been created between economic growth and the natural

limits of the earth. If this continues in the future, it will become an increasing threat to the livability of

our planet. The burden that our economic system puts on the earth will therefore have to be reduced

to a sustainable level; the 'sustainable carrying capacity of the planet ‘.

Making hidden effects visible
Our production and consumption leads to 'hidden' effects on the environment and on society.

However, if we could visualize, quantify and broadly communicate these effects, we could create

awareness, knowledge and incentives to achieve sustainable changes in the way we produce and

consume. The wide propagation of reliable information about the environmental impact of products

and services will work as an accelerator for sustainability.

Everything will become transparent
The world will become increasingly transparent. The costs of information are lower than ever before

and information through the internet comes to us faster and faster. Thanks to the internet it will be

possible to efficiently collect knowledge, to make information accessible and to spread it around. The

core activity of Mundeo is to collect and simplify reliable information about sustainability.

True costs
Expressing the environmental impacts of products and services in money offers the opportunity to

charge these costs accordingly. This will be a gradual process. Finally, in the future every company

and consumer will be paying the true price of a product. This is the price including pollution, the loss of

nature and the social consequences of the product creation, use and disposal. This price includes all

costs in the short and long term, direct and indirect, visible and hidden, both financially,

environmentally and socially.

Towards a sustainable economic system
When the environmental impacts will truly be charged to the parties that do cause the impacts, they

will be encouraged to reduce these costs. Innovation will increasingly result in sustainable products

and services. In this way consumers, businesses and governments will jointly contribute to the

creation of a viable, sustainable society for now and for future generations.

For more information: info@mundeo.org