Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.
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.
3.2. Classification system
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).
3.3. Coverage - sector
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').
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
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
3.5. Statistical unit
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).
3.6. Statistical population
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
3.7. Reference area
Belgium
3.8. Coverage - Time
EGSS data for Belgium are available for the period 2014-2022
For the period 1995-2013 data have been compiled for the Belgian Environment Industry. These data have not been compiled according to the same methodology, though. So they are not comparable, and consequently not disseminated.
3.9. Base period
Not requested for this metadata collection.
Output, gross value added, and exports are measured in million euro. Employment is measured in full time equivalents (i.e., full time equivalent jobs).
The reference period for EGSS data is the calendar year.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
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).
The Federal Planning Bureau of Belgium has been entrusted with the analysis of sustainable development policies and the construction of satellite accounts to the national accounts by the Belgian government, by means of the law of 21 December 1994 on social and diverse provisions.
A cell is considered non confidential if its value is based on at least 3 entities, and none of these 3 entities counts for 80% or more of the value.
8.1. Release calendar
The EGSS dataset is part of the data published by the Institute for National Accounts. The publication dates are laid down each year in a publication calendar publicly available on the INA website.
EGSS data are publicly available on the website of the Federal Planning Bureau. An X message announces the publication.
The EGSS are disseminated yearly. As of 2022 this happens at the end of October.
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
non-existent
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
Federal Planning Bureau, Institute for National Accounts, Environmental Goods and Services Sector Accounts 2014-2022, October 2024 (available in French and Dutch).
The EGSS data are also disseminated by Eurostat by means of the Eurobase website.
10.5.1. Metadata - consultations
Not requested for this metadata collection.
10.6. Documentation on methodology
A description of the methodology can be found in Dhondt A.-L. (2017), Environmental Goods and Services Sector accounts for Belgium – Methodology, May, Federal Planning Bureau, Brussels, 14 p.
Methodological changes are presented in the yearly reports for the National Accounts Institute
There is no document describing the measures to assure the quality of the EGSS data apart from the Eurostat quality report
11.1. Quality assurance
During production of the data, an outlier detection system has to assure implausible numbers for individual organisations are eliminated. Further checks ensure there can be no NACE-CEPA/CReMA combinations for which either output, gross value added or employment is zero, whilst the other economic variables are non-zero. Another check ensures that exports as well as gross value added can never be higher than output. For the final outcome a comparison is made with the results of the previous year in order to check plausibility.
The EGSS standard tables also contain in-built consistency checks.
The data are validated by the scientific committee of the National Accounts Institute.
The Eurostat validation procedure provides a further check on the data.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
There is no regular quality review. Quality improvements take place on an ad hoc basis in function of the time constraints of both environmental economic accounts experts and IT-experts.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
No domestic users identified. The main user of the data is Eurostat.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
not applicable
12.3. Completeness
Data on market activities and ancillary activities are available for all mandatory industries and environmental domains.
Non-zero non-market activities are only available for NACE O (Public administration). They are available for all mandatory environmental domains. We assume non-market activities in the field of environmental protection and natural resource management not to be relevant for other industries.
Data on own final use activities are not available.
The voluntary MEMO ITEM_CReMA 13B is calculated.
12.3.1. Data completeness - rate
Not requested for this metadata collection.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
For the market activities, we make use of a specific EGSS survey, which took place in 2018. The results from this survey (with reference year 2016) are used to allocate economic variables to the different environmental domains for the entire 2014-2022 period. Allocation keys are calculated at different NACE levels on the basis of the answers to the survey. For NACEs for which only few answers were collected, this implies accuracy is probably lower.
During the initial set-up of the EGSS in the period 2014-2015, a vast array of membership/umbrella/government organisations with an environmental link were contacted in order to obtain lists of their members or clients. It is impossible to review these lists each year. The activities of organisations are in constant flux. It is impossible to review the activities of all organisations each year. Consequently, the possibility that some organisations considered to be part of the EGSS are no longer environmental, or have become secondary instead of specialist producers (or the other way around) cannot be excluded. We plan a review of the Belgian EGSS universe in the context of a Eurostat grant project on the application of the CEP (Classification of Environmental Purposes) at the 6-digit-level in 2025.
New organisations outside of the 100%-environmental NACEs (37-39, 43.291 and 91.042) are added on the basis of answers to the SBS. Only a limited number of organisations receives the SBS each year. It is thus quite possible that part of the new environmental organisations are not immediately detected.
All answers to the specific EGSS survey have been checked, as well as the organisations which were found to have an environmental production in the SBS. In order to improve the identification of Belgian EGS-producers and the allocation of their activities to environmental domains, the website of a wide range of organisations was examined. As far as the output of the EGSS compilation process is concerned, the outliers are individually checked on their plausibility.
As far as secondary producers are concerned, EGSS shares are calculated for each NACE at the 2-digit level on the basis of the organisations for which data are known. However, to increase precision, if there is information about the environmental share of an individual producer, we should apply this and not the average share calculated on the 2-digit NACE level.
The EGSS is an account that requires at least 1 FTE to keep the database of individual organisations up to date. We do not have the necessary resources to fulfill this condition. The introduction of the CEP seems to offer an opportunity to thoroughly review the Belgian EGSS universe. This will be a one shot review, though.
13.2. Sampling error
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.
13.2.1. Sampling error - indicators
Not requested for this metadata collection.
13.3. Non-sampling error
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.
13.3.1. Coverage error
Not requested for this metadata collection.
13.3.1.1. Over-coverage - rate
Not requested for this metadata collection.
13.3.1.2. Common units - proportion
Not requested for this metadata collection.
13.3.2. Measurement error
Not requested for this metadata collection.
13.3.3. Non response error
Not requested for this metadata collection.
13.3.3.1. Unit non-response - rate
Not requested for this metadata collection.
13.3.3.2. Item non-response - rate
Not requested for this metadata collection.
13.3.4. Processing error
Not requested for this metadata collection.
13.3.5. Model assumption error
Not requested for this metadata collection.
14.1. Timeliness
An average amount of 0.14 FTE were spent on the production of the EGSS in the 2017-2024 period.
14.1.1. Time lag - first result
First EGSS results have been calculated between 21 and 22 months after the reference period.
The timing of the calculation for market activities depends on the availability of data in the enterprise database of the Federal Planning Bureau. These data are collected from different sources. Delays in delivery of these data automatically lead to delays in the calculation of the EGSS. Results for non-market and ancillary activities being sourced from EPEA and EPEA not yet being ready, the values for 2022 are in fact 2021 values in the 2024 EGSS.
No early estimates for EGSS are on the table at the moment.
14.1.2. Time lag - final result
Final results were obtained between 21 and 22 months after the reference period. Results for non-market and ancillary activities being sourced from EPEA and EPEA not yet being ready, the values for 2022 are in fact 2021 values in the 2024 EGSS. The final results are in other words not that final. The source data for 2022 are available around 23 months after the reference year.
14.2. Punctuality
The data were delivered to Eurostat on 31 October. The reporting deadline for EGSS to Eurostat is 31 October.
14.2.1. Punctuality - delivery and publication
The data were delivered to Eurostat on deadline day.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
EGSS accounts are compiled according to harmonised guidelines provided by Eurostat and hence comparable across European countries reporting EGSS accounts to Eurostat.
15.1.1. Asymmetry for mirror flow statistics - coefficient
15.1.3. Comparability - geographical - products not present in Indicative compendium - included
none
15.2. Comparability - over time
The entire time series is recalculated each year. Consequently, the data are comparable over time.
15.2.1. Length of comparable time series
There are no breaks in the 2014-2022 time series
15.2.2. Comparability - over time detailed
The data are comparable from 2014 up to 2022.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
The data used to calculate the EGSS market activities are the same used to compile the national accounts' (NA) supply and use tables. However, in the NA output is calculated at the industry level and not at the level of individual organisations. The corrections to go from turnover to output are not implemented in the EGSS. This leads to some degree of overestimation of the secondary non-trade output for the organisations belonging to NACE 45-47.
15.3.1. Coherence - sub annual and annual statistics
not applicable
15.3.2. Coherence - National Accounts
The data used to calculate the EGSS market activities are the same used to compile the NA supply and use tables. However, in the NA output is calculated at the industry level and not at the level of individual organisations. The corrections to go from turnover to output are not implemented in the EGSS. This leads to some degree of overestimation of the secondary non-trade output for the organisations belonging to NACE 45-47.
COFOG data are used to calculate non-market activities.
The market output calculated in EGSS is used in EPEA. The output, gross value added and employment concerning non-market and ancillary activities calculated in EPEA are used in the EGSS. However, due to the fact that the delivery date for the EGSS precedes the EPEA calculations, the data in the EGSS for year t (with t = most recent year to be delivered), are always based on EPEA calculations for year t-1. This implies that the data for non-market and ancillary activities for the EGSS reference year are identical to those for the penultimate year in the time series to be delivered.
15.3.4. Coherence - other statistics
EGSS statistics are not compared to these statistics. They make use of both business statistics and foreign trade statistics, as well as some physical agricultural and energy statistics to calculate the EGSS.
15.4. Coherence - internal
The data on market activities for output, gross value added, exports and employment are calculated at the individual enterprise level, with data taken from the FPB enterprise database which is used for all calculations with respect to the National Accounts.
The data on non-market and ancillary activities are sourced from the 2023 EPEA calculations, the 2024 EPEA not yet being ready.
This year we used 0.18 FTEs. This allowed us to work on some improvements. However, an update of our 2018 survey is out of the question with these limited resources. A minimum of 0.5 FTEs is necessary during non-survey years. In order to keep the database of individual organisations constantly up to date 1 FTE is necessary.
16.1. Cost and Burden - other accounts
We limit the costs to generate a set of results for this account out of necessity, due to a shortage of resources. However, this requires the use of a lot of assumptions, some more heroic than others. As a consequence, quality improvements can only be obtained in a piecemeal fashion. In order to guarantee the quality of the database of individual organisations, this database should be kept up to date permanently, which would require 1 FTE. The EGSS can be considered one of the more labour intensive environmental economic accounts if highest standards with respect to data quality are to be upheld.
17.1. Data revision - policy
The entire time series is recalculated each year, because the perimeter of the EGSS and the underlying data are updated each year.
Normally the secondary environmental shares should also be updated annually, but in the 2024 version this has not been done, because of time constraints. Organisations which for the first time were identified as producers of environmental goods and/or services by means of the SBS, were not included, as there was no time to check their answers, a prerequisite to weed out false positives (which are plenty) from the SBS.
17.2. Data revision - practice
New data have become available since the compilation of the 2023 EGSS: updated and new data in the national accounts, updated and new trade statistics, the 2023 EPEA and for EGSS validation round 2 the 2024 EPEA. The changes in the EPEA have important effects on the data for NACE O, as well as on the data with respect to ancillary production. Non-market data for NACE O in the 2023 EGSS were based on 2022 EPEA data. In the 2022 EPEA, the COFOG data used to determine the non-market output (and by way of derivation the employment) of NACE O were allocated to CEPA domains only. As of the 2023 EPEA, the COFOG data have been allocated to both CEPA and CReMA domains. These reallocated data have been used in the 2024 EGSS. During validation round 2 we were able to include the results obtained for the 2024 EPEA.
17.2.1. Data revision - average size
New data have become available since the compilation of the 2023 EGSS: updated and new data in the national accounts, updated and new trade statistics, the 2023 EPEA. Furthermore, the yearly adjustment of the EGSS universe also induces changes. Methodological changes have been made with respect to the production of biological agriculture and renewable electricity, which are now calculated on the basis of a combination of physical data and monetary national accounts data. Data have also been added for the ancillary activities with respect to the CReMA domains.
These changes induced a significant increase in the size of the Belgian EGSS. In comparison with the 2023 EGSS, total EGSS output increased by 9% on average over the 2014-2021 period, gross value added by 10%, employment by 7%, and exports by 2%.
17.2.2. Status of data
Because of the yearly revisions of the EGSS population it is difficult to regard the results as final, especially because each year only a fraction of the real changes in market activities (new organisations, changed activities of existing organisations) are detected. Furthermore, the data on non-market and ancillary activities have been taken from the 2023 EPEA, the 2024 version not yet being available. The 2021 values have therefore also been used for 2022. So, these data are certainly not final.
18.1. Source data
The production of data for the output, gross value added, exports and employment regarding market activities consists of 2 distinct activities.
The first phase is the identification of the organisations producing environmental goods and services.
In order to determine the scope of EGSS four approaches are used: the activity approach, the product approach, the survey approach and the business approach.
As far as the activity approach is concerned, we rely on the EGSS operational list provided by Eurostat. All organisations active in the industries indicated as 100% environmental in the operational list (NACE 37-39) are included in the scope. According to national relevance, all organisations active in NACE-BEL 43.291 (insulation works) and NACE-BEL 91.042 (nature reserve services) are also included in the scope. This selection is repeated annually.
As far as the product approach is concerned, all organisations producing products which are indicated as 100% environmental in the operational list are included in the EGSS scope. These have been selected on the basis of detailed supply data provided in the five-yearly extended SBS in order to construct the supply and use tables, as well as on the basis of exports data. However, the use of exports data is controversial, since the exporters of specific environmental products are not always the producers of these products. The use of data on exports of environmental products has therefore been discontinued.
As far as the survey approach is concerned, an additional question on environmental production in the SBS allows us to select EGS producers. Experience has shown that the survey approach needs to be combined with the business approach, in that a thorough check of the answers to this question is necessary. Due to a lack of resources, and the ensuing impossibility to perform this check, this source has not been used for the 2024 EGSS. Furthermore, a specific EGSS survey among all organisations part of the EGSS scope was performed in 2018 to check the scope as well as the primary or secondary nature of the environmental activities of the organisations included in the scope. This survey was supposed to become a quinquennial survey. However, running this survey proved to be very expensive and labour intensive, and therefore incompatible with the scarce resources available for the production of environmental economic accounts. Uptil this day, the EGSS survey has remained a one shot affair.
As for the business approach, existing databases/lists of organisations active in the environmental sector were used to complete the scope of EGSS at the initial set-up. Furthermore, for all organisations which answer to the SBS that they have an environmental output, and which are not yet part of the Belgian EGSS universe, a web investigation should take place in order to ascertain their answer. This is also the case for organisations which are part of the universe and answer they have no environmental output. For each of these organisations the website is investigated to check whether the organisation has or no longer has an environmental activity and in the case in which it has an environmental activity, whether it is their primary or secondary activity.
The second phase is the calculation of the economic variables for the organisations identified during phase 1. The source for these data is the enterprise database used by the Federal Planning Bureau for all calculations concerning the national accounts. This database contains a multitude of data at the enterprise level.
The non-market and ancillary activity data are calculated for the EPEA. In 2023 these calculations, which initially were limited to the CEPA domains, have been extended to the CReMA domains. Furthermore, the calculations on ancillary activities have also been extended to the NACE disaggregation level of the EGSS. This allowed us to obtain results for all NACE industries for each environmental domain in the 2024 EGSS accounts. However, since the EGSS delivery date has been advanced from December to October, while the EPEA can only be calculated after October, the 2023 EPEA had to be used as an input for the 2024 EGSS.
18.1.1. Source data - detailed - environmental accounts
The EPEA calculations are used for the non-market and ancillary activities.
Source data used to build the physical energy flow accounts (PEFA) are used to determine the share of renewable electricity in total electricity.
18.1.2. Source data - detailed - other statistics
Agricultural statistics are used to determine the share of biological output.
18.1.3. Source data - survey
In 2018 a dedicated survey was sent out to the largest part of the organisations which were part of the EGSS in 2017. This survey was to be organised quinquennially. Due to resource constraints this is impossible. Without a significant increase in resources devoted to the production of environmental economic accounts this will remain a one-shot survey.
18.1.4. Source data - detailed - other macro economic data (trade, VAT etc.)
Administrative data such as the annual accounts from the Central Balance Sheet Office, periodic VAT returns, VAT suppliers file, the multi-function return and the social balance sheet are all incorporated in the FPB's enterprise database.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
yearly
18.3. Data collection
The economic data for the organisations identified as being part of the EGSS are extracted from a shared database. The extraction itself is performed by the IT-team at our request.
Data serving as input for the shared database are provided by Statistics Belgium and the Belgian National Bank. If source data are not available according to an agreed schedule, we contact the data provider in order to find out the reason for the delay. If delivery of the data turns out to be impossible, we use previous year's data or if possible calculate a trend.
18.4. Data validation
An outlier detection system is used after the extraction of the data from the enterprise database. If an outlier is detected, a correction is made.
Automatic controls have been built into the market activities calculation program to avoid exports or gross value added being larger than output.
18.5. Data compilation
If output, gross value added or employment is lacking for a particular organisation in a particular year, but at least one of these variables is available for all years, an organisation specific average ratio is calculated and applied to the available variable in order to obtain a value for the unavailable variables. If output, gross value added or employment is lacking for a particular organisation over the entire period, but at least one of the variables is available for all years, a NACE specific ratio (calculated on the basis of all organisations belonging to the same NACE) is applied to the available variable in order to obtain a value for the unobserved variables.
Environmental shares are calculated for each NACE at the 2-digit level on the basis of the organisations for which data are known (based on specific EGSS survey, yearly SBS data, quiniquennial detailed SBS supply data and exports). For NACEs for which no data are available, we apply the (average) share of NACEs belonging to the same A64 category and if that does not suffice, the same A38 category.
The environmental NACE shares are normally recalculated each year. This has not been done in 2024 due to resource constraints.
18.5.1. Imputation - rate
Not requested for this metadata collection.
18.5.2. Data compilation - by variable and type of output
The market output data are extracted from the enterprise database of the Federal Planning Bureau. This database contains data from the Central Balance Sheet Office of the NBB (annual accounts) and is completed with production data based on the periodic VAT returns and on the VAT suppliers file of the FPS Finance. In the case of missing data, estimates of output are based on firm specific average ratios for the available years, or on (2-digit) NACE ratios with respect to employment. In the calculation of NACE ratios, the size of the organisation is taken into account on the basis of three employment categories : small (less than 20 employees), medium sized (between 20 and 199 employees), and large (200 or more employees) organisations. When output is missing for a particular organisation, its employment is multiplied with the output/employment ratio corresponding to its NACE and size.
The market gross value added data are extracted from the enterprise database of the Federal Planning Bureau. This database contains data from the Central Balance Sheet Office of the NBB (annual accounts) and is completed with value added data based on the periodic VAT returns and on the VAT suppliers file of the FPS Finance. In the case of missing data, estimates of gross value added are based on firm specific average ratios for the available years, or on (2-digit) NACE ratios with respect to employment. In the calculation of NACE ratios, the size of the organisation is taken into account on the basis of three employment categories : small (less than 20 employees), medium sized (between 20 and 199 employees), and large (200 or more employees) organisations. When gross value added is missing for a particular organisation, its employment is multiplied with the gva/employment ratio corresponding to its NACE and size.
Just like the data on output and gross value added, the data on employment with respect to market activities are extracted from the FPB enterprise database. The data on employment in that database are extracted directly from the quarterly multi-function return held by the National Social Security Office (NSSO ), as well as from the Central Balance Sheet Office data of the NBB (social balance sheet ) with a preference for data from the NSSO. As far as the self-employed are concerned, employment data on an individual level from the repertory of the National Institute for the Social Security of the Self-employed (NISSE) are currently not accessible to the FPB. In the case of self-employed subject to VAT and employing persons subject to social security, NSSO employment data are available. In the case of self-employed subject to VAT but not employing persons subject to social security, it is assumed that their employment is equal to one. If employment data are missing, and output data for the organisation are available, employment is estimated on the basis of a linear trend if output was established on the basis of VAT statistics. If the latter was not the case, the average employment/output ratio of years for which both variables are know is used.
Data on exports of EGS are extracted from the FPB enterprise database. No missing data concerning exports are estimated.
The type of environmental product is determined during the identification phase on the basis of web research or is determined by the nature of the product itself in the cases where the identification is done on the basis of the production of 100-% environmental products.
Non-market activities and ancillary activities are added on the basis of the results available in the EPEA. Ancillary activities in the EPEA are estimated on the basis of a specific EPEA survey. No data exist on environmental activities for own final use.
18.5.3. Data compilation - by NACE
The breakdown by NACE is based on the classification of the producer of EGS in the national accounts business register.
18.5.4. Data compilation – CReMA 13B memo item
The CReMA 13B memo item on the part of the output related to energy-efficiency measures undertaken for the construction of the near-zero emission buildings (NZEBs) is calculated on the basis of the value of the domestic production of energy-efficient technologies. We used an adjusted version of the methodology explained as an example for Belgium in Eurostat's Technical Note EEEA/2023/01 "Reporting of energy-efficiency measures undertaken for the construction of low energy consumption and passive buildings".
The first step consists of the calculation of the domestic output of energy-efficient technologies by the manufacturing sector. This is defined as the output of CReMA 13B by NACE C, excluding NACE 27, 29 and 30 (because the products of these industries are most probably not used by the construction industry to build near-zero emission buildings). In order to determine the value of the energy-efficient technologies available for the domestic construction industry, exports need to be deducted and imports added. Exports are readily available in the EGSS for the industries used to determine the output of energy-efficient technologies. Imports are calculated on the basis of the import/export ratio for the products of these industries, assuming an identical ratio for all the products. This ratio is calculated on the basis of data from the supply and use tables. Since no 2021 tables are available just yet, the 2020 ratio has been used for 2021 and 2022 as well.
Once the value of energy-efficient technologies available for domestic use is known, we have to split this value in a part used for the construction of NZEBs and a part used for other construction purposes (standard construction and renovation). This calculation is based on building permits for the Flemish region. We assume the relative shares of construction and renovation, and of NZEBs and non-NZEBs to be the same in the other regions. The data from the Flemish Energy and Climate Agency (VEKA) allow the calculation of building surfaces for NZEBS (m²NZEB) and for other construction and renovation (m²non-NZEB) separately. This suffices to obtain the split we need.
The value of energy-efficient technologies available for national use (ANU) consists of NZEB construction and non-NZEB activities (=standard construction + all renovations): ANU = costNZEB/m²NZEB * m²NZEB + costnon-NZEB/m²non-NZEB * m²non-NZEB We assume the construction costs of NZEB to be 15% higher than standard construction and renovations: costNZEB/m²NZEB = 1.15 * costnon-NZEB/m²non-NZEB So: ANU = 1.15 * costnon-NZEB/m²non-NZEB* m²NZEB + costnon-NZEB/m²non-NZEB * m²non-NZEB ANU = (1.15 * m²NZEB + m²non-NZEB)* costnon-NZEB/m²non-NZEB costnon-NZEB/m²non-NZEB = ANU / (1.15 * m²NZEB + m²non-NZEB) costnon-NZEB = [ANU / (1.15 * m²NZEB + m²non-NZEB)] * m²non-NZEB costNZEB = ANU - constnon-NZEB
The final step is the application of the "turnover/purchases of goods and services"-ratio of NACE 41 to costNZEB. This ratio is calculated on the basis of Structural Business Statistics data. The outcome is the output by NACE F for the CReMA 13B memo item.
NACE F Gross value added and employment are calculated assuming the ratios of these variables with respect to output to be the same as for total CReMA 13B. Exports are assumed to be zero.
18.6. Adjustment
univariate point outliers are corrected.
18.6.1. Seasonal adjustment
Not requested for this metadata collection.
Output is measured by means of turnover. The corrections for this in the National Accounts are not calculated at the level of the enterprises. However, this is only a problem for companies with a lot of trade. The inclusion of part of the companies belonging to NACE 45-47 (those with a secondary production other than trade) thus no doubt leads to some degree of overestimation. In the future a general correction at the NACE level, comparable to the one in the National Accounts, could help to suppress this overestimation.
The calculation of the exact share of the production of EGS by secondary producers is impossible. The data available as concerns the production mix of individual organisations are limited. For many organisations no data are available, and as a consequence an estimation has to be made using NACE averages.
Another source of imprecision is the determination of the shares of different environmental domains and types of products in the production of organisations who provide a mix of different EGS. Currently, equal shares are allotted to the different EGS.
The ancillary output data are based on a survey, the precision of which is low at a high level of disaggregation (NACE, individual CEPA/CReMA). Furthermore, the survey results date from 2018 and have been extrapolated ever since. An update of this survey is necessary, as is the case for the EGSS survey, which was used to calculate NACE shares for non-specialist producers. Resource constraints are blocking these updates.
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 2024
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
Belgium
The reference period for EGSS data is the calendar year.
For the market activities, we make use of a specific EGSS survey, which took place in 2018. The results from this survey (with reference year 2016) are used to allocate economic variables to the different environmental domains for the entire 2014-2022 period. Allocation keys are calculated at different NACE levels on the basis of the answers to the survey. For NACEs for which only few answers were collected, this implies accuracy is probably lower.
During the initial set-up of the EGSS in the period 2014-2015, a vast array of membership/umbrella/government organisations with an environmental link were contacted in order to obtain lists of their members or clients. It is impossible to review these lists each year. The activities of organisations are in constant flux. It is impossible to review the activities of all organisations each year. Consequently, the possibility that some organisations considered to be part of the EGSS are no longer environmental, or have become secondary instead of specialist producers (or the other way around) cannot be excluded. We plan a review of the Belgian EGSS universe in the context of a Eurostat grant project on the application of the CEP (Classification of Environmental Purposes) at the 6-digit-level in 2025.
New organisations outside of the 100%-environmental NACEs (37-39, 43.291 and 91.042) are added on the basis of answers to the SBS. Only a limited number of organisations receives the SBS each year. It is thus quite possible that part of the new environmental organisations are not immediately detected.
All answers to the specific EGSS survey have been checked, as well as the organisations which were found to have an environmental production in the SBS. In order to improve the identification of Belgian EGS-producers and the allocation of their activities to environmental domains, the website of a wide range of organisations was examined. As far as the output of the EGSS compilation process is concerned, the outliers are individually checked on their plausibility.
As far as secondary producers are concerned, EGSS shares are calculated for each NACE at the 2-digit level on the basis of the organisations for which data are known. However, to increase precision, if there is information about the environmental share of an individual producer, we should apply this and not the average share calculated on the 2-digit NACE level.
The EGSS is an account that requires at least 1 FTE to keep the database of individual organisations up to date. We do not have the necessary resources to fulfill this condition. The introduction of the CEP seems to offer an opportunity to thoroughly review the Belgian EGSS universe. This will be a one shot review, though.
Output, gross value added, and exports are measured in million euro. Employment is measured in full time equivalents (i.e., full time equivalent jobs).
If output, gross value added or employment is lacking for a particular organisation in a particular year, but at least one of these variables is available for all years, an organisation specific average ratio is calculated and applied to the available variable in order to obtain a value for the unavailable variables. If output, gross value added or employment is lacking for a particular organisation over the entire period, but at least one of the variables is available for all years, a NACE specific ratio (calculated on the basis of all organisations belonging to the same NACE) is applied to the available variable in order to obtain a value for the unobserved variables.
Environmental shares are calculated for each NACE at the 2-digit level on the basis of the organisations for which data are known (based on specific EGSS survey, yearly SBS data, quiniquennial detailed SBS supply data and exports). For NACEs for which no data are available, we apply the (average) share of NACEs belonging to the same A64 category and if that does not suffice, the same A38 category.
The environmental NACE shares are normally recalculated each year. This has not been done in 2024 due to resource constraints.
The production of data for the output, gross value added, exports and employment regarding market activities consists of 2 distinct activities.
The first phase is the identification of the organisations producing environmental goods and services.
In order to determine the scope of EGSS four approaches are used: the activity approach, the product approach, the survey approach and the business approach.
As far as the activity approach is concerned, we rely on the EGSS operational list provided by Eurostat. All organisations active in the industries indicated as 100% environmental in the operational list (NACE 37-39) are included in the scope. According to national relevance, all organisations active in NACE-BEL 43.291 (insulation works) and NACE-BEL 91.042 (nature reserve services) are also included in the scope. This selection is repeated annually.
As far as the product approach is concerned, all organisations producing products which are indicated as 100% environmental in the operational list are included in the EGSS scope. These have been selected on the basis of detailed supply data provided in the five-yearly extended SBS in order to construct the supply and use tables, as well as on the basis of exports data. However, the use of exports data is controversial, since the exporters of specific environmental products are not always the producers of these products. The use of data on exports of environmental products has therefore been discontinued.
As far as the survey approach is concerned, an additional question on environmental production in the SBS allows us to select EGS producers. Experience has shown that the survey approach needs to be combined with the business approach, in that a thorough check of the answers to this question is necessary. Due to a lack of resources, and the ensuing impossibility to perform this check, this source has not been used for the 2024 EGSS. Furthermore, a specific EGSS survey among all organisations part of the EGSS scope was performed in 2018 to check the scope as well as the primary or secondary nature of the environmental activities of the organisations included in the scope. This survey was supposed to become a quinquennial survey. However, running this survey proved to be very expensive and labour intensive, and therefore incompatible with the scarce resources available for the production of environmental economic accounts. Uptil this day, the EGSS survey has remained a one shot affair.
As for the business approach, existing databases/lists of organisations active in the environmental sector were used to complete the scope of EGSS at the initial set-up. Furthermore, for all organisations which answer to the SBS that they have an environmental output, and which are not yet part of the Belgian EGSS universe, a web investigation should take place in order to ascertain their answer. This is also the case for organisations which are part of the universe and answer they have no environmental output. For each of these organisations the website is investigated to check whether the organisation has or no longer has an environmental activity and in the case in which it has an environmental activity, whether it is their primary or secondary activity.
The second phase is the calculation of the economic variables for the organisations identified during phase 1. The source for these data is the enterprise database used by the Federal Planning Bureau for all calculations concerning the national accounts. This database contains a multitude of data at the enterprise level.
The non-market and ancillary activity data are calculated for the EPEA. In 2023 these calculations, which initially were limited to the CEPA domains, have been extended to the CReMA domains. Furthermore, the calculations on ancillary activities have also been extended to the NACE disaggregation level of the EGSS. This allowed us to obtain results for all NACE industries for each environmental domain in the 2024 EGSS accounts. However, since the EGSS delivery date has been advanced from December to October, while the EPEA can only be calculated after October, the 2023 EPEA had to be used as an input for the 2024 EGSS.
The EGSS are disseminated yearly. As of 2022 this happens at the end of October.
An average amount of 0.14 FTE were spent on the production of the EGSS in the 2017-2024 period.
EGSS accounts are compiled according to harmonised guidelines provided by Eurostat and hence comparable across European countries reporting EGSS accounts to Eurostat.
The entire time series is recalculated each year. Consequently, the data are comparable over time.
