In 1990, the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment first published the Ecological Scarcity Method, also known as the UBP method (UBP = eco-points, from the German term “Umweltbelastungspunkte”). Since then, it has been updated several times, most recently in 2021. In the meantime, the method is also attracting attention in countries as well as companies outside of Switzerland.

The method can serve companies as a basis for decision-making, for example, in product development. The environmental impact of a product, a company or an entire economy is presented on a point scale. The eco-factors are central to this. They indicate the environmental impact of an emission, a resource use or waste in the unit of eco-points (UBP). The method takes emissions to air (such as CO2), water and soil into account. Resources include not only energy and water but also the use of land. Waste is also included in the eco-factors.

In the weighting, it plays a role of indicating how harmful a certain environmental impact is compared to a reference value. For example, methane is much more harmful compared to CO2. Also weighted is how far from the permissible limit the pollution is, or how far the limit has already been exceeded. Finally, the assessment also depends on the harmfulness of the substances: substances that cause harm even in small quantities are weighted more heavily than those that only cause problems in high doses.