Background
The development of the environmental business sector depends on many factors, including the general political and economic conditions; the environmental priorities set by governments through national environmental policies; environmental expenditures undertaken by the public and private sectors; environmental legislation and regulatory enforcement systems, including environmental institutional capacity; and the general business environment. To operate successfully in a competitive market, the environmental business sector needs a thorough understanding of all these factors.
This report looks at some of these factors and presents the status of the emerging environmental market. In addition, current information and training needs of the environmental business sector are identified to provide a fundamental knowledge of how to support these businesses effectively in their development.
The Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe (REC) started its business program in 1995 with its first survey on the status of the environmental business sector, including information gaps and training needs. This survey covered the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia - together known as the "Visegrad countries." This volume of the "Emerging Environmental Market" survey covers another four countries: Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Slovenia.
Project Objectives
The primary objectives of this research project are to describe the status of the environmental business sector (including profiles of businesses, etc.) and to provide an overview of the environmental market (political and economic situations, environmental priorities and expenditures, environmental legislation and enforcement, etc.) in Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Slovenia. For the purpose of this study, the key terms are defined as follows:
- Environmental businesses: organizations that provide products or services to measure, prevent, reduce or render harmless the pollution of the environment, including activities in relation to the introduction of cleaner production technologies.
- Environmental technology or product: any piece of equipment, process or related service that is available to prevent, reduce, minimize, measure or render harmless the environmental impact of industrial or municipal activities.
- Environmental service: any consulting service that is available to prevent, reduce and minimize the environmental impact of industrial, municipal or other activities.
The secondary objectives of the survey are to identify information and training needs and barriers to the development of environmental businesses.
Scope and Methodology
The Regional Environmental Center developed the methodology and the survey, including the standard questionnaire to be used in interviews. Both a local environmental expert and a market research firm were commissioned in each of the surveyed countries to identify senior managers in leading environmental businesses and to conduct the survey, based on the terms of reference and the format provided by the Regional Environmental Center.
The REC provided a standard questionnaire (included in the Appendix of this report), which served as a platform for the interviews. The questionnaire was translated into each local language and was reviewed by a native speaker on the REC staff before being used in interviews.
To obtain a representative sample, up to 150 environmental businesses were interviewed in each country, and the survey was conducted across the widest possible geographical range and company spectrum based on size, ownership, income and area of expertise. Information for the country profiles was gathered from various sources, including researchers' experience, informal telephone interviews, news reports, governmental environmental policy plans, professional literature and the REC's in-house information resources.
Researchers in each country then submitted a written analysis presenting the findings of the survey.
Structure of the Report
This report provides qualitative information about the environmental market, the status of the environmental business sector, the information and training demand and the barriers to development for each surveyed country. The report consists of a regional overview and four country specific chapters. Each country chapter is structured in the following way:
- Summary of Findings.
- General Introduction - a brief synopsis of the political and economic situation.
- Overview of the Environmental Market - a general summary of major environmental problems, information on national environmental expenditures, estimates of the size of the environmental market, activities of state environmental funds, priorities of the state environmental plans.
- Profile of Environmental Businesses - an overview of the environmental business sector, including ownership structure, size, age, revenues by environmental media and activity, foreign cooperation, office equipment and language proficiency.
- Information on Environmental Business Opportunities - an explanation of sources of information for business opportunities and an overview of major environmental and business publications.
- Information and Training Needs - an overview of the demand for information and training of environmental businesses.
- Assistance and Barriers to Business Development - discussion of the major sources of assistance and the main barriers to business development.
REC * PUBLICATIONS * EMERGING ENVIRONMENTAL MARKET 2 * BACKGROUND
