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Environmental Costs Indicator (ECI)
Environmental Costs Indicator (ECI)

Impact method developed for the construction sector operating in The Netherlands

Updated over 3 months ago

The Environmental Costs indicator (ECI) (in Dutch: Milieukostenindicator - MKI) is an impact assessment tool used by construction sector companies operating in The Netherlands that combines the environmental impacts of a product into a single monetary unit measured in euros.

The ECI is calculated by first performing weighting of different impact category exchange impacts and then summing all impact categories' exchange impacts into a single score.


Until now, the ECI used ReCiPe2008 impact categories, however, by July 2025 companies operating in The Netherlands are expected to calculate a new ECI score that is based on amendments to the EN15804 (annex A2:2019), which is itself based on the EF3.1 method.

Requires a full Ecoinvent license to view results and generate reports with ECI.

ECI in Earthster

In Earthster you have access to the latest version of the ECI impact method following the EN15804+A2 standard, what we refer to as version 2025.

The method includes the total and partial ECI scores as separate categories.

ECI partial weights for each impact category - version 2025

The weighting factors were extracted from the 2020 report from Delft University containing the updated characterization factors to be used in the new ECI.

Impact category

Unit

Weight score (€/unit)

Climate change

kg CO2 eq

0.116

Climate change (fossil)

kg CO2 eq

0.116

Climate change (biogenic)

kg CO2 eq

0.116

Climate change (land use and land use change)

kg CO2 eq

0.116

Ozone depletion

kg CFC-11 eq

32

Acidification

mol H* eq

0.39

Eutrophication aquatic freshwater

kg P eq

1.96

Eutrophication aquatic marine

kg N eq

3.28

Eutrophication aquatic terrestrial

mol N eq

0.36

Photochemical ozone formation

kg NMVOC eq

1.22

Depletion of abiotic raw materials, minerals and metals

kg Sb eq

0.30

Depletion of abiotic raw materials, fossil fuels

MJ net cal val

0.00033

Water use

m3 water, world eq deprived

0.00506

Particulate matter emissions

Health problems - incidence

549.750

Ionising radiation, human health

kBq U235 eq

0.049

Ecotoxicity (freshwater)

CTUe

0.00013

Human toxicity, cancer effects

CTUh

1096368

Human toxicity, non-cancer effects

CTUh

147588

Land use-related impact / Soil quality

Pt/m2*year

0.000178

Viewing the ECI 2024 impact categories

Follow these instructions to learn how to view other impact categories.

Exporting ECI results

You can export all the available categories included in the ECI with the "Custom impacts tree" report type.

Requires a full Ecoinvent license to view results and generate reports with ECI.

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