In connection with the transition to a market economy, previously widely used in Russia, the methodology for calculating profitability indicators and other traditional criteria for indicating environmental and economic innovations were incorporated into the general theory of investment efficiency, formed by the postulates of marginal economics, the founders of which were mathematicians and economists V. Jevons, L. Walras and K. Menger. Subsequently, the task of financial and environmental protection assessment of preventive technological innovations was traditionally solved through the mechanism of environmental and economic modeling, forecasting and analysis, within which the following can be recognized as the priority areas of scientific research:
- development of general theoretical foundations of simulation and optimization models of environmentally sustainable development (R. Krumberg, A. Arons, R. Atkinson and others);
- Definition of economic and mathematical principles of modeling the strategy of environmental management (E. Ushakov, S. Bobylev, B. Stone, P. Holt, I. Crafits, J. Harrison, A. Raps);
- functional-cost interpretation of the effectiveness of nature-restoration actions of economic entities (P. Nesterov, G. Gelans, K. Taub, V. Jones, W. Willie, etc.).
The mentioned authors and many other scientists - researchers of modern environmental protection problems analyzed various aspects of the process of alternative choice of industrial-ecological rehabilitation. As a result of lengthy scientific research, an extensive range of different points of view, ideas and directions of research has formed, which, in the absence of a single methodology, recognized by all participants in environmental and economic discussions, gives a large set of different solutions in each specific situation. In this context, there is an obvious need to create such a comprehensive theoretical and methodological concept that would act as a single agreed toolkit that would allow calculating the profitability of any company using market environmental and economic indicators and provide a comprehensive assessment of the financial and environmental criteria for preventive technological innovation.
The effectiveness of the environmental management course is a system of criteria synthesizing economic and environmental priorities. In this regard, the task of the methodological solution should be considered as a study of the environmental and economic consequences and prospects of choosing an environmental protection option by using special environmental and financial criteria in order to significantly simplify the procedure for investing in environmental technologies and switching to calculating profitability indicators in accordance with them.
It seems that in modern economic conditions, when choosing from various mutually exclusive preventive engineering solutions, the combination of absolute and relative market characteristics established by the application of functional cost analysis procedures and the corresponding calculation of profitability indicators is optimal. They differ from other systems in their ability to comprehensively evaluate the financial and environmental aspects of the genesis of sanitation technologies.
An exhaustive description of the fundamental theoretical foundations of the functional-value theory is presented, developed and recommended for practical use by the Research Institute of Social and Economic Problems. The functional-cost method and calculation of profitability indicators based on it, in relation to the conditions of the current period of development of the Russian economy, defines almost all categories of environmental and economic efficiency, and is based on the use of discounted indicators, for example, “income-expenses” or the estimated forecast “flow cash - the profitability of capital investment. "
Thus, it is precisely the functional cost approach and the methodology for analyzing profitability indicators based on it that seems to be the most effective scientific and practical toolkit in environmental studies, the purpose of which is to, equally reflect economic and environmental priorities, balance the natural under conditions free enterprise pursuit of natural resources for profit and tasks of nature protection, what is very important to stimulate the efficacy of gov't stvennoj prirodozaschitnoy policy.