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Environmental goods and services sector (env_egs)

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National Reference Metadata in Single Integrated Metadata Structure (SIMS)

Compiling agency: Statistics Sweden

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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.

31 October 2023

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

The reference period for EGSS data is the calendar year.

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 many industries, a combined approach has been developed for the environmental sector regarding reporting years 2023 and 2024. Previously there was only an activity approach, but now a product approach is also used. This means that companies that produce a number of environmental products are included even if they do not belong to a specific industry. Moreover, in the data collection 2023 we 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.

From reporting year 2023 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. 

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).

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). 

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. 

Yearly

T+20 months.

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

As for the latest revisions and data/method changes concerning reference years 2021 and 2022, mentioned under section 17, the comparability of the time series are affected. This should be considered when comparing latter data with years preceding reference year 2021.

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