The green side of innovation

EU skills and employment policies should help the transition to a green smart innovative economy (EU agenda for new skills and jobs). Such policies could accompany, support and even promote a reduction of environmental impact of economic activities.

The indicator considered here refers to the share of innovative enterprises with procedures to identify and reduce their environmental impact.

Key points

• In 2008, in most EU countries with available data (eleven out of twelve), at least 20% of all innovative enterprises had procedures in place to identify and reduce their environmental impact.
• Highest shares (over 30%) were reported in Estonia (35,5%) and Hungary (32,7%); lowest (less than 20%) were reported in Bulgaria (8,2%).
• Compared to the situation at the end of 2005, positive developments between 2006 and 2008 can be inferred for all countries with available data. New or significantly improved eco-friendly procedures contributed to a major greening of innovative enterprises and, therefore, of economy as a whole.

 

Notes

Data originate from the EU Community innovation survey and are subject to its methodology. Data were processed by Cedefop and extracted from the Eurostat online database on 21 February 2012. In interpreting the data, possible differences in national implementation of the EU-CIS should be taken into account. The indicator is calculated considering all enterprises belonging to core economic sectors strictly related to innovation (sectors B, C, D, E, G46, H, J58, J61, J62, J63, K and M71 of the NACE REV, 2 classification). Innovative enterprises are those with any type of product, process, organizational or marketing innovation). Procedures for identification and reduction of environmental impact include among others, preparing environmental audits, setting, environmental performance goals and ISO 14001 certification.

Data for some countries are not presented for availability or consistency reasons.