Austria's Environmental Technology Industry: Development – Emphasis – Innovation

Austria's environmental technology industry is characterised by a structural change over time. This is shown in the increasing significance of clean technologies compared to end-of-pipe technologies. Clean energy technologies are of special importance in this segment. Over a period of not quite 15 years Austria’s environmental industry has shown a very dynamic development in Austria. According to estimates based on firm surveys the number of companies increased from 248 to 375 between 1993 and 2007. Throughout this period, the economic indicators turnover, employment and exports all achieved a clearly positive trend: turnover almost quadrupled (from € 1.5 billion to about € 6 billion), exports increased by more than a factor of 2.5 between 1997 (€ 1.5 billion) and 2007 (€ 3.9 billion). Employment in the environmental technology industry has doubled since the first analysis was made (from 11,000 to 22,000 persons employed).