Price of Sustainability : Rethinking Pricing for a Viable Economy

A ground-breaking framework that redefines price formation as the structural foundation of sustainability, The Price of Sustainability argues that ‘true pricing’ can restore long-term and inclusive economic viability.

Through grounding in rigorous fieldwork, financial analysis, and the economic insights of Rudolf Steiner, this book exposes the reality behind today’s pricing; that they are systematically falsified and don’t reflect the reality of sustaining labour, nature and capital. To counter this, Andrillon introduces the concept of true pricing as a diagnostic framework, discerning when a price reflects viability, and when it conceals impending collapse.

In the opening chapters, the author guides you through both the contemporary failure of sustainable development and the shortcomings of economic approaches to this issue. Transitioning from diagnosis to construction, Chapter 4 formalizes the concept of a “true price”; it argues that a price is only true if it enables the full reproduction of labour, nature, and capital across time. The following chapters present the operational core of this framework, illustrating how it can be used across sectors as a practical evaluative method.

Bridging political economy, sustainability science, and economic theory while offering a highly original contribution to debates on degrowth, post-capitalism, and ecological transition, this innovative text is the perfect companion for undergraduate students, postgraduate students, scholars and policy-makers working at the intersection of sustainability, political economy, ecological economics, development studies, and accounting.