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<p>Contemporary economies externalise the true costs of environmental decline, public‑health burdens and social inequity, perpetuating unsustainable growth that conventional accounting fails to capture. True Cost Accounting (TCA) offers a holistic, systemic framework to internalise these externalities, yet despite growing practice in grey literature, no peer-reviewed synthesis has mapped its theoretical foundations, functional dimensions, and transformative potential in the context where it is most extensively developed and applied. Focusing on food systems, this review addresses that gap by tracing TCA’s evolution from welfare, environmental and ecological economics, demonstrating how social welfare, externalities, valuation methods, value pluralism, and strong sustainability converge into an umbrella paradigm that integrates economic, ecological, and social dimensions into a unified decision-support system. We then build a Theory of Change to structurally map TCA’s roles and goals across target actors (consumers, businesses, investors, civil society, policymakers, and workers) and across assessment levels (product, business, industry, investment, policy, and region). This Logic Model framework links impact and valuation data through advocacy and decision-support tools to market- and policy-driven shifts toward long-term sustainability and equity. By positioning TCA at the confluence of impact assessment and both monetary and non-monetary valuation, we underscore methodological and value pluralism as core design principles. Finally, we engage with foundational criticism and synthesise limitations such as data gaps, boundary inconsistencies and modelling simplifications, before proposing pathways for TCA’s evolution: standardised protocols, dynamic system modelling, pluralistic valuation practices and institutional embedding in decision-making. By weaving conceptual lineage with methodological architectures and normative critique, this review consolidates TCA as an evolving research paradigm and charts an agenda for its maturation into a credible, equitable and transformative tool for sustainability. While grounded in food system literature, the insights developed here remain relevant for the use of TCA in other economic sectors.</p>

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Accounting for what matters: a review of true cost accounting as a transformative framework

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年2月7日

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  • Henri Contor,
  • Erika De Keyser,
  • Molla Tigabu Kasaw,
  • Erik Mathijs

摘要

Contemporary economies externalise the true costs of environmental decline, public‑health burdens and social inequity, perpetuating unsustainable growth that conventional accounting fails to capture. True Cost Accounting (TCA) offers a holistic, systemic framework to internalise these externalities, yet despite growing practice in grey literature, no peer-reviewed synthesis has mapped its theoretical foundations, functional dimensions, and transformative potential in the context where it is most extensively developed and applied. Focusing on food systems, this review addresses that gap by tracing TCA’s evolution from welfare, environmental and ecological economics, demonstrating how social welfare, externalities, valuation methods, value pluralism, and strong sustainability converge into an umbrella paradigm that integrates economic, ecological, and social dimensions into a unified decision-support system. We then build a Theory of Change to structurally map TCA’s roles and goals across target actors (consumers, businesses, investors, civil society, policymakers, and workers) and across assessment levels (product, business, industry, investment, policy, and region). This Logic Model framework links impact and valuation data through advocacy and decision-support tools to market- and policy-driven shifts toward long-term sustainability and equity. By positioning TCA at the confluence of impact assessment and both monetary and non-monetary valuation, we underscore methodological and value pluralism as core design principles. Finally, we engage with foundational criticism and synthesise limitations such as data gaps, boundary inconsistencies and modelling simplifications, before proposing pathways for TCA’s evolution: standardised protocols, dynamic system modelling, pluralistic valuation practices and institutional embedding in decision-making. By weaving conceptual lineage with methodological architectures and normative critique, this review consolidates TCA as an evolving research paradigm and charts an agenda for its maturation into a credible, equitable and transformative tool for sustainability. While grounded in food system literature, the insights developed here remain relevant for the use of TCA in other economic sectors.