Background

Introduction

This report serves as the second volume in the "Environmental Technology Market in CEE" series, the first survey having been published in December 1997 and which examined the markets in Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia.

This project was generously funded by the Finnish Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Environment, Norway.

Objectives

For the purpose of this survey, the key terms were defined as follows:

• Environmental industry: a pool of all organizations providing products and services to measure, prevent, reduce or render harmless the pollution of the environment, including activities related to the introduction of cleaner technologies.

• Environmental technology: a piece of equipment or a process, and related service that are available to prevent, reduce, minimize, render harmless or remediate the environmental impacts of industrial or municipal activities.

• Environmental technology R&D: Basic, applied or developing research related to or targeted at environmental technologies, including research activities related to cleaner technologies and renewable energy resources.

The secondary objectives of the report were to describe the status of the environmental business sector and to identify the factors that affect their development in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

The objectives of the survey were met by analyzing the following seven critical areas:

• state of the environment (an overview of the environmental situation and existing policy framework);
• project opportunities (identifying specific environmental problems);
• technologies in demand (over 120 specific environmental technologies were examined);
• major suppliers in the environmental market;
• advantages and disadvantages of local and foreign technologies;
• status of the environmental business sector;
• information needs and barriers to the development of the environmental business sector.

The report presents an analysis of the viewpoints of end-users, distributors and manufacturers of environmental technologies in the following key categories: air, water, wastewater, waste, and energy. Two other categories were also examined, namely, soil, and noise, vibration and occupational health and safety; however, both received limited attention since they do not offer significant market opportunities in the coming years.

Scope and Methodology

The Regional Environmental Center provided a standard questionnaire for end-users of environmental technologies (industries and municipalities) and environmental businesses (included in the Appendix), which was translated into the local language and which served as the platform for interviews. The local language questionnaire was reviewed by REC staff before being used.

The content of the report is largely based on the formal interviews conducted with a cross section of senior-level actors in the environmental technology market including representatives from industry, municipalities and environmental businesses. Additional interviews were held with selected government agencies and related institutions which provided insight into the demand of environmental technologies.

Up to 100 professionals were interviewed in each country. In-country researchers selected a representative cross section of interviewees based on size, area of expertise, and geographical location. In addition to the interviews, the report was supplemented by information from personal contacts, researchers' experience, informal telephone interviews, news reports, trade journals and industry literature.

Researchers from each country submitted a written report presenting the findings of the survey. Each chapter was edited and complemented by the staff of the REC.

The project was conducted between October 1997 and April 1998.

Structure of the Report

A regional overview summarizes the three country specific chapters, each of which is structured in the following way:

• Summary of Findings.

• Methodology - an outline of the survey methodology and approach, including sources of information, and respondent profiles.

• Overview of the Market - a general picture of the major environmental problems, information on environmental expenditures for each country, estimates of the size of the environmental technology market, activities of state environmental funds (where applicable), and a discussion of priority areas under state environmental policy.

• Project Opportunities - an overview of the major environmental problems listed by interviewed experts, a review of the major environmental projects currently in progress, a discussion of the sources of information available for identifying business opportunities and the available environmental technologies, an overview of environmental fairs and public procurement practices, and a list of useful contacts.

• Demand for Environmental Technology - a discussion of the identified demand for environmental technologies in five categories: air, water, wastewater, waste, and energy, and an overview of the major end-users of environmental technologies.

• Advantages and Disadvantages of Local and Foreign Suppliers - a discussion of the purchasing preferences of domestic buyers, a review of the strengths and weaknesses of local and foreign environmental technologies.

• Profile of Environmental Businesses - overview of the local environmental business sector and discussion of information needs and barriers to development.

• Lists of Contacts - full lists of interviewed experts, environmental businesses, bibliography, and other information as appropriate.

Each country chapter is also supplemented with a directory of environmental businesses and a directory of governmental agencies concerned with the environment.

About the Researchers

Estonia

Latvia

Lithuania

The Regional Environmental Center