Statistics Sweden

Environmental Accounts Sweden

Solna strandväg 86, Solna, 171 54 Sweden 

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, seawater desalinization or 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.

Sweden

2011-2021

Not requested for this metadata collection.

Output, gross value added, and exports are measured in million units of national currency. 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).

There are no national arrangements related to data sharing between Statistics Sweden and other data producing aganecies. 

Statistics Sweden applies the rule of at least 3 entities in one group and no-one should account for more than 75% of the total in their group.

The rule applied for treating the microdata and macrodata is based on the p-percentage rule (10%). 

The release of statistics in EGSS is planned a year before each publication and it is published in the publication calender in the official website of Statistics Sweden, which is publicly accessible. 

The release calender is publicly accessible in the official website of Statistics Sweden, Publishing calendar (scb.se)

EGSS statistics are dessiminated nationally in the Swedish Environmental Accounts webpage, System of Environmental and Economic Accounts (scb.se)

A newsletter is published the day of the release and it is also sent to the press. Users can be informed about the next publishing both in the newsletter and the official webpage. 

Yearly

Production in the environmental sector increases in 2021 (scb.se)

Not available. 

System of Environmental and Economic Accounts (scb.se)

Statistical database - Select table (scb.se)

Not requested for this metadata collection.

Not applicable. 

Not applicable. 

Not requested for this metadata collection.

Available only in Swedish: Kvalitetsdeklaration - Miljöräkenskaperna - Miljösektorn 2003–2021 (scb.se)

Not requested for this metadata collection.

Available only in Swedish, Kvalitetsdeklaration - Miljöräkenskaperna - Miljösektorn 2003–2021 (scb.se)

Statistics Sweden applies the Eurostat code of practice and has implemented UNECE’s Generic Statistical Business Process Model (GSBPM) in the production processes. 

Overall, the data is of good quality. Data is collected from reliable sources applying high standards with regard to the methodology and ensuring a high degree of comparability.

EGSS has been used in or as inspiration to the following policy-linked areas; Environmental technology sector, bio-based economy, the marine sector, drivers for green growth. As data is regionalised to Swedish counties there are many local users. Swedish government growth and export authorities have used the data to find emerging markets/growth possibilities. There are no quantitative policy target based on the statistics. 

Feedback from the users is positive and there is a growing interest in EGSS data. The NACE allocation is interesting for the data users. We have many users on a local level. Since we have the micro business population we can easily regionalize the data and do special processing and indicators for municipalities/regions. Another example is to extract small and medium sized enterprises from the population which is requested by some users. So far no users have requested data on specific environmental specific services, cleaner and resource efficient products and other (connected) products. There is no interest in data on ancillary output and output for own-final use. We think the possibility to make special processing of data to fit special purposes such as e.g. environmental technology, bio economy and regional data will continue to be important.  Possibilities also exist to link EGSS data with land account data since there is data on business level. Moreover, the possibility to make international comparisons is also valueable. 

We believe our data is complete and in compliance with Regulation 691/2011.

Not requested for this metadata collection.

By continuous updates of both population and classification in data as well as revision of time series and by quality checks. For every year we prioritize a number of improvements in methodology. In data collection 2023 we have revised the polulation in NACE C16, D and others. 

There is possibly lower quality data in certain industries that are borderline cases on whether they produce environmental goods and services as a main function as well as those that may fall into multiple CEPA/CReMA categories. We are continuously working on improving the microdata that we use. 

Certain CEPA/CrEMA categories remain that are more difficult to determine than others. We have a problem with material recovery and the split between different CReMA for this. In this reporting most of material recovery is in CReMA 14. Moreover, some CEPA/CReMa codes are empty today. These are ongoing quality improvement for all reporting countries. We make adjustments as we discover quality issues and these are identified during yearly checks before reporting of such statistics. An accomplished EU Grants project has resulted in new methodology for estimation of EGSS in NACE A01, A02 and F as well as new estimates on export in the named sectors. 

 EGSS accounts are compiled using a range of primary statistical sources. The sampling and non-sampling errors are described in the metadata of the underlying statistical data.

Not requested for this metadata collection.

 EGSS accounts are compiled using a range of primary statistical sources. The sampling and non-sampling errors are described in the metadata of the underlying statistical data.

Not requested for this metadata collection.

Not requested for this metadata collection.

Not requested for this metadata collection.

Not requested for this metadata collection.

Not requested for this metadata collection.

Not requested for this metadata collection.

Not requested for this metadata collection.

Not requested for this metadata collection.

Not requested for this metadata collection.

T+20 months.

T+20 months.

T+20 months.

The data were delivered to Eurostat on 31 October. The reporting deadline for EGSS to Eurostat is 31 October. 

0

No issues in geografical comparabilty have been detected since the microdatabase used in EGSS covers all regions in Sweden for the entire timeseries.  

Not requested for this metadata collection.

No

Our business population consists of many companies which have been handpicked over the years (sometimes before the indicative compedium existed) and they can produce a very specific environmental good or service where some might nog be included as an activity in the indicative compendium. In many cases we cannot differentiate between recycling of metal and wholesale of scrap and therefore som wholesalers who manage the recyling are included as well. We also try to be restrictive of adapted goods and include only if there is a clear and evident adaption, i.e. not just more efficient consumer machines like washing machines or such. 

In NACE D, there is a time series break in NACE D in combination with Crema 13A in year 2012 due to recent updates. Furthermore, revisions in NACE A01 and A02 result in a timeseries break in year 2015.  

6 years

We check against totals in business statistics. 

We do not compare subannual and annual statistics.

National Accounts rules and definitions are strictly followed. 

Data from EPEA used in EGSS secures coherence.

We check against totals in business statistics. 

No different data sources except for output and GVA that have the same estimation methodology. National Acoounts data have been used as source to estimate EGSS export values in NACE A01, A02, F.
For coherence, comparing outliers and macro checks.

Around 0,5

Yes

We revise whole time series when we have improved methodology and data collection quality. We have updated the micro data in NACE D, renewable energy as well as the environmental shares due to previous underestimation for the years 2012-2015. We have also done updates in NACE A02 because of updates in EFA regarding fuel wood and the number of employees. Revisions have been also made in NACE F where the environmental share of the sector is updated. A new methodological approach for NACE A01 has resulted in revised data for the whole sector and timeseries.  Some small revisions has also been made in other NACE categories. 

We have updated the micro data in NACE D, renewable energy as well as the environmental shares due to previous underestimation for the years 2012-2015. We have also done updates in NACE A02 because of updates in EFA regarding fuel wood and the number of employees. Revisions have been also made in NACE F where the environmental share of the sector is updated. A new methodological approach for NACE A01 has resulted in revised data for the whole sector and timeseries.  Some small revisions has also been made in other NACE categories. 

Yes, about 20-40%.

Final

The Swedish EGSS is mainly based on the business population from the Statistical Business register. The main sources for identifying the population are by NACE codes. In some NACE codes all activities are included (NACE 37-39), while in others businesses are handpicked depending on their main acitivty (NACE C, O, P, M, G, H, I, K, L, N, Q, R, S, T, U ). After identifiying the EGSS population, a CEPA/CReMA category is allocated to every object in the population. This is mainly done automatically by connecting each NACE to a specific CEPA/CReMA (e.g. för NACE 37-39). In addition, some adjustments are made.

For NACE A01, A02 and 03 we include environmentally certified businesses. For A01 we estimate values based on NA data in combination with organic production in agriculture in the designated NACE branches in EGSS list of environmental products and activities and they are allocated to CEPA 4. For A02, forest, we estimate values based on NA data in combination with certified forests and allocate NACE 02.1 and 02.4 to crema 11A and NACE 02.2 is allocated to crema 13.A (based on fuel wood from EFA).

For NACE D we include all energy producers (businesses) that produce renewable energy based on energy data. We only include the renewable energy share of each business. This is allocated to crema 13A.

For NACE F we use NA data in combination with information on construction of NZEBs from Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning. This is allocated to crema 13B. Please note the estimates of NACE F in Crema 13B are provisional and we plan to send updated estimates in coming validations rounds.

Yes, we ues EPEA and environmental motivated subsidies. 

SBS, Business registry, surveys in NPISH, public sector, agriculture statistics, forest agency statistics, housing and building statistics.

None

Annually

Official statistics from the Agriculture staistics agency and customised data extraction from Housing and Building Board. 

We do several quality checks both on macro and micro level. Also extreme values in development between years are investigated. We also check for revisions compared with last years reporting. 

For the output values and market data, the data source is output from SBS which is aligned with National Accounts data. Except for NACE A01, A02 and NACE F where data is collected directly from NA. 

For GVA values and market data, the data source is value added from SBS which is aligned with National Accounts data. Except for NACE A01, A02 and NACE F where data is collected directly from NA. 

For exports, foreign trade registry on business level is used. We have a business identification number we can match data with. All products exported from an EGSS business is included. Except for NACE A01 and A02 where we use NA data (environmental share output in NACE A02 is multiplied with export from NA SU tables) and for NACE F where exports is put to zero after our research work in EU Grants project 2021-2023.

For employment, SBS and Labour statistics based on administrative sources are used. This is matched with the environmental population by local unit or with a macro model (NACE A01, A02, F). 

For the EGSS share, in some cases we use information from energy statistics by company. In some cases we have macro model applied based on available information in e.g. forest industry or in construction industry. We also use information from the Statistical Business Register that have detailed information on NACE codes for each working unit and the share of each economic actitivity, for example a working unit can have 50 percent economic activity in NACE 38 and the rest in something else outside the EGSS scope, and then the environmental share is 0,5. This environmental share is applied to all EGSS variables (output, GVA, employment and export). 

Not requested for this metadata collection.

Our data availability on energy-efficiency related measures for construction of NZEB is quite limited. The methodology includes data for CReMA 13B in NACE F 41.2 and data about the share on energy classification of buildings (enrgy class A, B and C) from Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning. Then, a default conversion factor of 0.2 is used, assuming as a generic estimate that 20% of the construction costs in new energy-efficienct buildings ae related to energy efficiency. This measurement is described in the Guidance Note - Reporting of energetic refubrishment and construction of new energy-efficient buildings in EGSS accounts, EEEA/2020/02. 

Not applicable. 

Not requested for this metadata collection.