Edinburgh Napier University

  Previous editions of this journal have drawn attention to the
critical role valuation plays in life cycle analysis and environmental impact assessment (see for example Volkwein and
Klopffer [1]. In particular, the critical role of valuation has
been highlighted in a number of discussions on 'valuation step'
within life cycle costing, 'hedonic and contingency' assessments of environmental impact and both the utility and welfare of 'pathway' analysis/asscssment (Krewitt, Mayerhofer, Trukenmuller and Friedrich 1998; Powell, Pearce and Craighill., 1997; Volkwein, Gher and Klopffer,1996[2-4]. Focusing on the utility of market valuation, this paper examines the critique of discounting
environmentalists have made in relation to property
valuation, investment appraisal and the application of the principle
in the income based net annual return model of land use
time-horizons and the spatial configuration of building programmes
- a criticism implicit in 'valuation step', 'hedonic, contingency'
and 'pathway' analysis~assessments. It examines the argument
put forward regarding the link between the selection of a
discount rate, the valuation of property, appraisal of investment
and inter-generational downloading of costs associated with the use of land, repair, maintenance and refurbishment of buildings: the downloading of costs, seen by some, to have an adverse impact and work against the introduction of experimental designs aimed at energy saving, clean air environments.