STATEC - NSI Luxembourg

Satellite accounts

13, rue Erasme

L-2013 Luxembourg

B.P. 304

The environmental goods and services sector (EGSS) accounts report on an economic sector that generates goods and services produced for environmental protection or the management of natural resources.

Products for environmental protection prevent, reduce and eliminate pollution or any other degradation of the environment. Examples are electric vehicles, catalysts and filters to decrease pollutant emissions, wastewater and waste treatment services, noise insulation works or restoration of degraded habitats.

Products for resource management safeguard the stock of natural resources against depletion. Examples are renewable energy production, energy-efficient and passive buildings, rainwater recovery, and materials recovery.

EGSS accounts provide data on output and export of environmental goods and services and on the value added of and employment in the environmental goods and services sector.

EGSS data are compiled following the statistical concepts and definitions set out in the UN System of Environmental-Economic Accounting 2012 – Central Framework.

Data are reported cross-classified by 1) the type of environmental protection or resource management activity and 2) economic activity.

Environmental protection activities are classified by environmental domain as set out in the Classification of Environmental Protection Activities - CEPA. Resource management activities are classified as set out in the Classification of Resource Management Activities - CReMA. see the revised CEPA and CReMA explanatory notes for detail. Economic activity is classified according to the Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community, Rev. 2 (2008).

EGSS comprises a sector of the economy that produces goods and services aimed at environmental protection and resource management (see SEEA CF 2012 chapter 4). Environmental goods and services either reduce environmental pressures or help maintaining the stock of natural resources or they are designed to be cleaner and more resource efficient than conventional products. Environmental goods and services can be produced by corporations, households, governments and non-profit institutions. The list of environmental activities and products has been set out in the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/2174 ('the indicative compendium of environmental goods and services').

EGSS has the same system boundaries as the European System of Accounts (ESA 2010) and consists of all environmental products within this production boundary. ESA defines production as the activity carried out under the control and responsibility of an institutional unit that uses input of labour, capital, goods and services to produce output of goods and services.

Only goods and services produced for environmental purposes are included in the scope of the environmental goods and services sector.

'Environmental purpose' means that a good or service helps either 1) preventing, reducing and eliminating pollution and any other degradation of the environment or 2) preserving and maintaining the stock of natural resources and hence safeguarding against depletion.

The EGSS statistics aim at compiling data for the following economic variables:

Output: consists of products that become available for use outside of the producer unit, any goods and services produced for own final use and goods that remain in the inventories at the end of the period in which they are produced. Apart from market output, output for own final use and non-market output, EGSS statistics also include ancillary output, comprising output intended for use within an enterprise.

Market output is to be valued at basic prices, that is, the prices receivable by the producer from the purchaser minus taxes and plus subsidies on products.
Output for own final use is to be valued at basic prices of similar products sold on the market or by the total costs of production.
Non-market output is to be estimated by the total costs of production.
Ancillary output is measured as a total of recurrent production costs (such as intermediate consumption, compensation of employees and consumption of fixed capital) incurred by enterprises to: 1) reduce environmental pressures arising from their production process or 2) produce environmental goods or services not intended for use outside the enterprise, but instead supporting other (non-environmental) activities undertaken within the enterprise (e.g. waste management services carried out in-house). For market producers, a mark-up for net operating surplus is added to the value of the EGSS ancillary output.
Gross Value Added: represents the contribution made by the production of environmental goods and services to GDP. It is the difference between the value of the output and intermediate consumption.

Employment: is measured in full-time equivalent jobs engaged in the production of output of environmental goods and services. Full-time equivalent is defined as total hours worked divided by the average annual working hours in a full-time job.

Exports: consist of sales, barter, gifts, or grants, of environmental goods and services from residents to non-residents.

Council Regulation (EEC) No 696/93 of 15 March 1993 on the statistical units for the observation and analysis of the production system in the Community describes the different statistical units of the production system.

The recommended statistical unit for the collection and compilation of EGSS statistics (excluding general government) is the establishment. For general government, the recommendation is to use institutional units and groupings of units as defined in the European System of Accounts (ESA 2010).

The statistical population is the national economy as defined in SEEA CF 2012 and the European System of Accounts (ESA 2010). It includes all economic activities undertaken by resident units.

Luxembourg

2008-2021

Not requested for this metadata collection.

Output, gross value added, and exports are measured in million units of national currency (euro). Employment is measured in full time equivalents (i.e., full time equivalent jobs).

The reference period for EGSS data is the calendar year.

EGSS accounts are compiled and reported in accordance with Regulation (EU) No. 691/2011 on European environmental economic accounts (EEEA).

The EEEA follow internationally agreed concepts and definitions set out in the SEEA Central Framework (2012), the international statistical standard adopted by the UN Statistical Commission. They present data in a way that is compatible with National Accounts (ESA, 2010).

Data is shared according to the schedule adopted by STATEC

A data is confidential if the NACE has less then 4 companies or if a company is dominant.

Primary and secondary confidentialities are defined.

Confidential data are flagged as confidential. These data are not published.

EGSS statistics are published on web portal (LUSTAT Data Explorer (statec.lu)) on November 15th.

not applicable

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yearly

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not applicable

EGSS statistics are published on web portal ((LUSTAT Data Explorer (statec.lu)) 

EGSS statistics are available under the tables:

LUSTAT Data Explorer • Comptes des biens et services environnementaux (en millions EUR) (statec.lu)

LUSTAT Data Explorer • Emplois liés aux biens et services environnementaux (en équivalent temps plein) (statec.lu)

microdata are not accessible for confidentiality reasons

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Not requested for this metadata collection.

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All mandatory years and all mandatory variables are reported.

The pilot project on the estimation of auxiliary products was not successful.

Not requested for this metadata collection.

No specific quality issue.

The main difficulty is, during survey, for companies to correctly identify environmental products and if activities are not fully 100% environmental, to estimate a correct share

EGSS accounts are compiled using a range of primary statistical sources. 

Not requested for this metadata collection.

EGSS accounts are compiled using a range of primary statistical sources. 

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22 months after reference period

22 months after reference period

The data were delivered to Eurostat on October 31st.

The data were published on web Portal on November 15th

not applicable

Not requested for this metadata collection.

There are no products which are excluded 

Products included are as per the indicative compendium.

not applicable

Starting from reference year 2011, a dedicated EGSS survey takes place for NACE C and M; data for reference years 2008-2010 for NACE C and M were estimated using a different methodology.

Nevertheless, the results for reference years 2008-2010 are comparable with the results for 2011-2021.

The length of the comparable time series is 2008-2021.

EGSS statistics are comparable

not evaluated

not applicable

EGSS statistics are fully consistent with national accounts

EGSS statistics are fully consistent with EPEA

not available

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0,5 FTE is necessary to compile EGSS

the cost is largely higher than other accounts due to the organisation of a specific survey 

not available

Following the relaunch of the survey 2022 carried out in 2023, we have slightly revised historical data.

In 2023, we have also slightly enlarged the scope of NACE S, by including associations with environmental purpose as identified in the social economy satellite accounts.

A revision of exports for NACE E38 was also performed in 2023 to exclude the resale of an imported good to non-residents(cf. EGSS Practical Guide 2016 pg. 28). Data have been properly flagged.

If other revisions occur they are linked with the revision of the source data.

not estimated

Overview of the sources used to produce EGSS:

NACE A: Agriculture statistics, Forest accounts
NACE C: Survey every 3 years (or yearly if considered necessary), national accounts for interpolation
NACE D: Energy accounts
NACE E: national accounts
NACE F: national accounts, building statistics
NACE M: survey every 3 years (or yearly if considered necessary), national accounts for interpolation
NACE O: Government accounts
NACE R and S: business accounting register, Social economy satellite accounts

• Administrative data: Data from balance sheets for some companies and for Non-profit institutions serving households (concerns NACE D, R and S); data from building register to calculate passive houses and NZEB (NACE F)
• National accounts: Production accounts
• Agriculture statistics used for organic farming
• Energy statistics for CReMA 13A for NACE D
• Labor statistics

A survey is conducted on EGSS products for NACE C (exhaustive) and for NACE M (sample of 150 companies).
Variables collected are output, export and investment.
This survey is carried out every three years. Normally, it had be run in 2021 (for the reference year 2020). But due to pandemic, we have postponed this survey in 2022 and we have collected data for two reference years 2020 and 2021. A relaunch of the survey took place in 2023 focusing on the companies not responding to the 2022 survey. 

Administrative data are collected annually.

Survey data are generally collected every three years.

Every three years, an online survey is conducted for NACE C and NACE M.

For NACE C, the survey is organised in two stages:

step 1: companies are contacted by phone to identify if they manufacture EGSS products
step 2: if step 1 is positive, an invitation to fill in the online questionnaire is sent

For NACE M, a stratified sample (based on number of employees) is taken and invitation to fill in the online questionnaire is sent

To ensure the quality of responses received, two analysis are applied:

• comparison with answers sent during previous survey
• comparison with data from business register

If data seems inconsistent, a direct contact with company is taken.

Output and export are obtained from EGSS survey or from other sources (national accounts, administrative data, business register,...)

GVA is calculated by comparing EGSS output and the TOTAL output of related NACE. The assumption is that the added value of a green product is the same as the equivalent non-green product. In many cases, this assumption is a default choice due to the lack of data (companies calculate GVA for total activity and not by product).

Employment is calculated by comparing EGSS jobs and the TOTAL jobs of related NACE. Then the number of jobs is multiplied by the number of worked hours for a fulltime in the dedicated NACE.

The EGSS operational list is used to determine the scope of EGSS products. The scope is revised every three years when the new survey is prepared.

Not requested for this metadata collection.

See 18.5

Non-market output are calculated only for non-market activities based on the calculation of the cost.

Exports are from National accounts and if the application of a share is needed, the share is established based on the survey

Employment: For NACE C and M, results from survey are applied. For Nace R and S, statistics from annual reports, microdata and social economy satellite accounts are used.

The breakdown by NACE is based on the product classification (CPA)

The part related to the energy efficiency activities (insulation, heating,... ) was estimated using the construction price index by types of construction activities. The value was calculated by multiplying the percentages  corresponding to energy efficiency activities to the output, VA, etc. related to the NZEBs (full cost).

Regarding reporting of energy-efficient building under CReMA 13B, we include all the energy -efficient buildings with the energy performance class A. 

No adjustment

Not requested for this metadata collection.