The economics of communities and ecosystems are intertwined. Decisions about managing and paying for environmental resources have consequences for economic prosperity, resilience, and equity.
Our air, water, forests, and public lands are shared, common goods that require careful management. ECONorthwest combines rigorous economic analysis with an empirical understanding of human behavior. We help governments, non-profits, and communities protect and grow the value of their natural resources.
Examples of our work related to environmental and natural resources can be viewed here.
Benefit-Cost Analysis
Allocating scarce resources involves tradeoffs. We help communities make efficient, equitable decisions by providing clarity on the consequences of those decisions.
Using the correct tools and data to assess and compare the benefits and costs of options is crucial for decision-making when substantial tradeoffs are at stake. Our team of economists has conducted benefit-cost analyses of a wide array of resource-management decisions for federal, state and local agencies and private institutions, including USEPA, USFS, BLM, USDA, DOI, and numerous others.
Our benefit-cost work follows federal guidelines and economic principles. Our studies have undergone peer and expert panel review, and are used to demonstrate best practices in the field. We have produced guidance documents on benefit-cost methods in environmental contexts and pioneered approaches to collect and use the best data and information available.
Economic Contribution/Impact Analysis
Jobs, wages, and economic activity are critical indicators of the effects of environmental and natural resource management decisions. We are experts in applying analytical tools to understand how economic activity recirculates through local economies.
ECONorthwest has decades of experience using input-output modeling software, conducting analysis at zip code through national-level geographies. Our team is experienced with multiple modeling platforms, including IMPLAN, REMI, and RIMS II. We apply these methods with care, making sure to distinguish between gross contributions and net impact analyses. Our work is used in a variety of settings, including informing legislatures, contributing to socioeconomic analyses, and guiding investment decisions.
Ecosystem Services and Non-Market Valuation
Our economic approach reveals the value that natural resources and healthy ecosystems bring to communities and businesses. While markets often fail to fully contemplate these values, our work brings their economic contribution to light.
Ecosystems provide goods and services that people value: clean water and air, timber and energy, fresh food, natural environments that attract people for recreational and cultural priorities. These benefits require investment to sustain. We help our clients—public and private—make worthwhile investments by conducting detailed studies of ecosystems, natural resources, and recreation valuations. Our findings withstand legal scrutiny and are used by a range of stakeholders and public agencies.
We are experts on the tools and federal guidance to quantify returns on investments in natural resources, including:
Benefit-cost analysis
Triple-bottom-line analysis
Travel cost analysis
Stated preference (survey) methods
Avoided cost analysis
Spatial analysis
Regulatory Analysis
Federal and state regulations often require the use of economic tools to inform decision-making. We conduct environmental impact assessment analyses under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and similar state-level statutes (SEPA in Washington and CEQA in California).
Our socio-economic and environmental justice analyses reach beyond superficial assessment of economic factors. We explore the ways actions impact economies in both positive and negative ways. Since every action will produce both winners and losers, understanding their consequences gives communities the insights needed to support more equitable decisions.
We’ve supported regulatory processes, including National Economic Development (NED) and Regional Economic Development (RED) analyses under the federal Water Resources Development Act’s Principles, Requirements, and Guidelines for assessing investment decisions in water management projects. We have also supported economic assessments of critical habitat designations and development of Habitat Conservation Plans (HCPs) under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
We’ve worked with every federal resource management agency, in consulting, advisory, and peer-review roles. We currently hold a GSA contract, and have multiple on-call and open-services contract vehicles with different federal agencies.
Distributional Impacts and Social Equity
Beyond just the total sums of benefits and costs, who enjoys the benefits and who bears the costs matters. We carefully identify and address distributional considerations and their implications, including how they affect equity and social justice.
Equity is central to every one of our economic analyses. We begin by identifying and quantifying allocation issues, particularly for sensitive stakeholders. Next, we consider the implications of distribution of benefits and costs (including non-financial) and the potential ways that values differ across groups. We work directly with representatives of historically marginalized populations to understand how important specific benefits can be, and how burdensome specific costs will feel.
We utilize the best available data and information in our process, including conducting outreach to deepen our understanding of those potentially impacted. We help decision-makers and impacted communities use this knowledge to find more equitable and successful outcomes. Our approach includes addressing program design to align incentives with outcomes that will be best for society at large.
Natural Resource Damage Assessment
Oil spills and hazardous waste contamination impair environmental resources and habitats. We pair economic tools with toxicological and biological indicators of injury to measure both the lost value to the public from contamination, as well as the scale of restoration projects necessary to compensate the public.
ECONorthwest has extensive experience applying non-market valuation and restoration scaling techniques - including HEA, REA, and HaBREM - to resolve natural resource damage assessment claims. Our experience extends across cooperative assessments, bankruptcy claims, and contentious litigation on some of the largest natural resource injuries in the history of the United States.
Our team has worked as part of multi-agency federal efforts to improve NRDA valuation techniques in the context of damages to tribes of lost cultural services resulting from natural resource damages. We provide our clients with the tools needed to meet the challenge of not only measuring the degree of injury, but also finding a way to make the public whole.