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Improvement of data quality in Environmental Expenditure Account as well as in Eco Industry – Sample survey at service industries
I n f o r m a t i o n e n
Agreement number
Sacha Baud
23 May 2007
© STATISTIK AUSTRIA

3. Sample survey at service industries
Content
Current methodology
Project description
Survey on environmental protection expenditure of services industries (sample design, questionnaire, results)
Survey on environmental service industries (sample design, questionnaire, results)
Problems occurred and proposals for the future

4. Sample survey at service industries
Current methodology
EIA and EPEA are regular work of Statistics Austria since 1997.
NACE 90 is allready covered by a survey.
Other service industries are estimated with share of turnover.
But not all environmental services industries are included.
Therefore they are underestimated.

5. Sample survey at service industries
Project description
Two voluntary surveys:
Survey on environmental protection expenditure of service industries
Survey on environmental service industries
Aim …
… to provide a detailed overview on production of environmental goods and services of the Austrian service industries and on the demand side as well, which means e. g. consumption of environmental services like waste management or goods like filters, for 2003 and 2004.

6. Sample survey at service industries
Survey on environmental protection expenditure of service industries
Sample survey – 2000 enterprises of all service industries, except:
NACE 75: Public administration and defense; compulsory social security, Education
NACE 90: Sewage and refuse disposal, sanitation and similar activities
NACE 95-97: Activities of private households
NACE 99: Extraterritorial organisations and bodies
Random sampling of enterprises with 10 and more employees, which were active on January 1, 2003.

9. Sample survey at service industries
Survey on environmental protection expenditure of service industries
Response rate 20.6%
Most enterprises answered: „No environmental expenditure (not possible)“
Reasons:
Respondents not familiar with this topic
Difficulties to understand the term environmental expenditure
Complex structure of the questionnaire
Specific problem of service enterprises: hired offices
Time needed to gather information
Voluntariness

10. Sample survey at service industries
Survey on environmental service industries
Sample survey with 2000 enterprises.
Choice of industries based on previous Austrian studies, EGSS TF and own decisions.
Those industries should be taken into account where it could be assumed that enterprises carry out environmental services – approach broader than proposed by EGSS TF.
Data bases: Business register, yellow pages and an on-line database of Austrian lawyers (environmental raw).
29 industries on NACE 6-digit-level were taken into account – preselection in 17 industries, original population in 12 industries.

13. Sample survey at service industries
Survey on environmental service industries
This survey was also not very successful – second round of data collection by telephone; overall response rate 20.3%.
Therefore: Non-response analysis with sample of 200 enterprises of 13 industries, reduced questionnaire.
Target: Would more enterprises reply when they can not decide whether they are an environmental service enterprise or not?
Answer: More enterprises would reply, but still not a satisfactory number (30.6%).

14. Sample survey at service industries
Survey on environmental service industries
Calculations were made for 4 NACE categories:
NACE : Architectural activities
NACE : Engineering activities and related technical consultancy
NACE : Technical testing and analysis
NACE : Botanical and zoological gardens and nature reserves activities
Turnover; employees in environmental activities; kind of service; environmental management systems; env. turnovers by sales markets; R&D, patents, concessions, industrial property rights and similar rights as well as licences derived out of it.

15. Sample survey at service industries
Problems occurred
Issue seems to be unusual for service enterprises – in contrast to enterprises of manufacturing industry.
Complex structure of the questionnaire.
Voluntariness
Environmental services are sometimes part of comprehensive services, therefore difficult to calculate.
In some industries a preselection was not possible – maybe a high sampling error influenced the outcome.

16. Sample survey at service industries
Proposals for the future (environmental services enterprises)
A compulsory data collection will probably not be possible.
Therefore:
Data of Structural Business Statistics for core environmental industries.
Data of SBS weighted by factors for environmental services that are part of comprehensive services, e.g. chimney sweepers.
Questionnaire should be easier, focussed on absolutely necessary data.
Cooperation with economic chambers and other lobbying organisations.
Use of external data bases.

17. Sample survey at service industries
Proposals for the future (env. exp. of service enterprises)
Questions on environmental expenditure in the SBS of service industries.
If not possible, the presented questionnaire should be easier, focussed on absolutely necessary data.
Use of calculations.

18. Thank you very much for your attention!
Sample survey at service industries
Thank you very much for your attention!