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Environmental Management and Health, Vol. 11 No. 4, 2000, pp. 369-381.#MCB University Press, 0956-6163
A survey of requirements and
needs in the field of
environmental technology,
with special emphasis on
environmental employment, in
Sweden
Walter Leal Filho, Katarina Larsen and Folke Snickars
Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Division of Regional Planning, Stockholm, Sweden
Keywords Environmental systems, Environment, Sweden, Germany
Abstract This paper presents the main results of a research project looking at trends on environmental technology and environmental employment in Sweden. Entitled ``FEESE'' (Fostering Employment in the Environment Sector in Europe), the project analysed provisions and needs in respect of environmental training among a sample of Swedish companies, which are outlined in this paper. Some recommendations which may be useful to Sweden, but which are also applicable to other industrialised countries, are also presented.
Introduction
The study ``Fostering Employment in the Environment Sector in Europe'' or FEESE, initiated in late 1998, is an international study involving Finland, Germany and Sweden, aimed at analysing the current state of affairs in relation to the environmental sector in Europe, paying special attention to
environmental technology, with an emphasis on the matters of direct concern to and of direct impact on employment in the sampled countries. The project was set in motion following the ``Seminar on Perspectives and Employment in Environmental Engineering in Europe'' held in Hamburg, Germany in September 1998 (Leal Filho, 1998).
The study, being of an international nature, was meant not only to investigate trends and analyse provisions in a sample of European countries, but also to identify other European and country-specific needs. Finally, as a contribution towards addressing the problems seen in this important sector, a set of recommendations are made, which may be of help in taking full advantage of the employment benefits the environmental technology sector is likely to provide to Europe's economies as a whole and to these three countries in particular. Due attention was also paid to labour trends and statistics (e.g.
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EUROSTAT/Statistics Sweden, 1998; OECD, 1999) and in relation to environmental employment as a whole (IVA, 1996; RALF, 1997; Swedish, Environmental Protection Agency, 1997; Leal Filho, 1999).
One additional driver of employment in the environment sector is, in addition to eco-efficiency, the state of environmental technology per se (Leal Filho and Larsen, 2000). Simply speaking, a sound technological basis may, combined with eco-efficiency and other elements, influence a country's capability to develop its environment sector and, at the same time, address its employment needs.
In this context, the project FEESE tried both to analyse the current state of affairs in relation to the environmental sector in Europe and also to pay special attention to environmental technology, with an emphasis on the matters of direct concern to and of direct impact on employment in the sampled countries. The results of the study, in Germany, are available both in print (Leal Filho, 2000) and via the project's Web site (http:// www.projekte.org/feese).
In Sweden, the country of concern in this paper, FEESE was supported by NUTEK ± Swedish National Board for Industrial and Technical Development, The Swedish EU Programme Office and the Environmental Protection Agency with subsequent assistance from RALF ± The Swedish Council for Work Life Research.
As to the purposes of the project, the interpretation of the environment technology sector entailed technical areas such as cleaning, remediation, decontamination and other mitigating measures, also incorporating environmental management, but excluding environmental politics. This is in line with what OECD has defined as the environment sector and, despite the usual difficulties seen with definition of what the environment sector is or is not (OECD, 1996, OECD, 1997), it constituted an operational basis for the project. This is also in line with the recent work performed by Statistics Sweden by assignment of the European Commission (DGXI) and based on the following general definition given by OECD/Eurostat (SCB, 2000):
The environmental goods and services industry consists of activities to measure, prevent, limit, minimise or correct environmental damage to water, air, and soil as well as problems related to waste, noise and ecosystems. This includes cleaner technologies, products and services which reduce environmental risk and minimise pollution and resource use.
The objectives of the Swedish component of the FEESE project, the subject of this paper, were:
. to provide an up-to-date account of the current status of employment in
the environmental technology sector in Sweden.
. to identify and analyse trends, strategies and initiatives aimed at
catalysing, improving and/or facilitating the employment prospects of environmental graduates from Swedish universities;
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Finally, it was envisaged that a wide dissemination of the results, especially among providers of training such as higher education institutions, could lead to some tangible improvements in respect of the deficiencies identified as part of the project.
Methodology
The FEESE project focused on the environmental technology component ± as opposed to the broader environment sector as a whole. In this context, it took into account nine sub-sectors, including the seven topics officially part of the EC environmental research agenda and going over and above that with two extra themes, thus moving towards the ``sustainable environmental technologies'' goal as laid down in the EC 5th Environment Action Plan.
As to the purposes of the FEESE project, the following nine areas (subsectors) were included in the study:
(1) a ± remediation of sites.
(2) b ± pollution control measurements. (3) c ± environmental impact assessment. (4) d ± clean technologies.
(5) e ± environmental management (including auditing and eco-balance).
(6) f ± sustainable production and design.
(7) g ± waste management (solid/liquid), monitoring, treatment of hazardous wastes.
(8) h ± recycling technologies.
(9) i ± environmental communication, education and training.
These areas and other elements considered in the project are outlined in Figure 1. Some of the key questions asked in the study were:
. What is the real contribution of the environment technology sector and
the above listed sub-sector as sources of employment in Sweden and in other countries taking part in the study?
. How many people are employed and in which areas?
. Which problems prevent employment prospects in the environment
sector?
. Which areas are stable, saturated and open for growth?
. How can employment in the environment technology sector be sustained
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Moreover, since moves towards the establishment of environmentally-oriented programmes, courses and projects are now conspicuous across Europe, the project tried to identify items such as:
. what types of skills the market wants
. what skills the market is able to accept
. which specific skills are in demand.
The Swedish component of the project was performed over a period of 12 months, starting in June 1999 and the data collection instruments included:
. a review of the available literature and official documents,
. telephone interviews, and
. a postal and Web-based questionnaire survey.
A total sample of 190 companies, nationally distributed, was investigated. The main sources for the selection of companies were registers provided by the national authorities themselves or publications produced in co-operation with national environmental authorities (e.g. Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, 1998 and 1999, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, 1999; Envirotec, 1998). In order to further gather information and experiences from organisations, authorities and other relevant agencies for the environmental industry in Sweden, a conference was arranged in Stockholm in December 1999. The meeting was organised in co-operation with the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and gathered together 80 persons representing environmental agencies, institutes, consultants, organisations and universities. The delegates giving presentations were representing the following organisations:
Figure 1.
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. Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. Statistics Sweden ± SCB
. Swedish National Board for Industrial and Technical Development ±
NUTEK
. Federation of Swedish Industries
. Ministry of Environment
. Swedish Environmental Research Institute ± IVL
. Ragnar Sellbergs Foundation
. Swedish Council for Work Life Research ± RALF
. Swedish Centre for Ecological Sustainability ± SWECOL
. Kjessler & MannerstraÊle ± KM
. Swedish Environmental Management Council
In the panel discussion closing the conference, the following organisations were represented: Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, Association of Swedish Chemical Industries, The Swedish Delegation for Sustainable Technology and The Royal Institute of Technology. For more information from the workshop see http://www.projekte.org/feese
Embedded into the methodology chosen for the FEESE project was the need to strengthen the European dimension of the employment perspectives of the environment market in Sweden and elsewhere. The methodology tried and used in this project may therefore enable it to be used to the benefit of investigations in other countries not included in this study.
Results and discussion
The amount of data gathered during the study was substantial and their presentation in full would probably go well beyond the scope of a paper. In addition, some of the results have also been presented elsewhere (e.g. Leal Filho and Larsen, 2000), so that the emphasis here will be on the key findings which are also of broader interest. In order to systematise the presentation of the main results, they will be grouped into three categories:
(1) the significance of the sector and knowledge by employees,
(2) the type of training/knowledge employers require/wish from employees, and
(3) the information and training needs from the surveyed companies.
1. The significance of the sector and knowledge of employees
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of around SEK 163 billion (1998), roughly equivalent to US$20 billion. Around 6,727 enterprises have been identified as working in this sector (SCB, 1999, SCB, 2000).
The number of employees working in companies in each sector is summarised in Table I. It can be seen that small to medium enterprises, with 50 employees or fewer, make up the majority of the sample.
As far as the level of education of the employees in the surveyed companies is concerned, the multiple choice questions show that people working in the environmental sector hold different levels of education, but a large proportion possess a university education (see Table II).
This finding shows that there is a great deal of flexibility in the admission requirements of environmental companies and that the sector also provides work for people with more basic levels of education.
In order to gather some impressions on the environmental knowledge current and future employees should ideally have, companies were asked to list the skills they favour in a multiple choice question. The responses given, as seen in Table III, indicate that technical knowledge and knowledge on
Table I.
Number of employees in different types of companies in the sample
Up to 10 11-25 26-50 51-100 101-500 > 500
No
Level of education Percentage of respondents
Basic education (gymnasium) 42
Middle education (yrkesskola) 48
Higher education (universitet/hoÈgskola) 75
Table III.
Knowledge and skills Present Future employees
Environmental law 77 75
Technical environmental issues 98 100
Environmental management 67 74
Environmental ethics 52 59
Environmental policies 67 66
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environmental legislation, together with skills related to environmental education/communication, are the most favoured in the sample for both present and future employees.
It is seen that, in addition to technical environmental issues (first place), the two areas where knowledge is most favoured are environmental education and communication, followed by environmental law and environmental management.
2. The type of training employers require/wish from employees
As important as the needs from employers is the ability from the side of training providers to meet them. In this context, the sampled companies were asked to refer to the extent to which training providers are taking into account the knowledge they are looking at. The results, as seen in Table IV, are mixed, although companies are predominantly of the opinion that their needs are being fully or at least partly addressed.
The sampled companies were also asked if they were satisfied with the quality of the new graduates entering them, as far as environmental skills are concerned. Under half of the companies responding to the question have stated that they are fully happy (39). The most frequent answer was that they are partly satisfied (81) and ten have stated that they are not happy with the quality of new graduates at all. The response ratio for this question was, in the context of the sample, seen to be low (68 per cent) and a frequent comment from companies not responding was that they had not employed any newly graduated person recently and therefore were unable to express an opinion.
When asked to list which skills are missing (multiple choices possible), the sampled companies have indicated that a wide range of skills are needed (Table V).
There seems to be a preference for more practical knowledge in the sample. In addition, skills related to human relations are emphasised more than both
Table IV. Whether training providers are meeting the needs of companies
Qualitative judgement Replies (companies)
Training needs are being fully met 23
Training needs are being partly met 101
Very little emphasis on what is needed 28
No emphasis on what companies need 6
Table V. Skills needed by companies
Skills needed Replies (companies)
More practical knowledge 65
More theoretical knowledge 29
More language skills 10
More computing skills 2
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computing and language skills. This is not necessarily to be interpreted as that computing and language skills are considered unimportant: it could be that these requirements are well met at present and are therefore not emphasised to the same extent.
3. The information and training needs from the surveyed companies
The surveyed companies were also asked whether information on the latest environmental technologies, including information materials, are reaching them. Impressions were mixed and were ranked as shown in Table VI.
Those who were getting limited or no information were asked to state the possible reasons for this. Some of the respondents that did not think that information on new technologies was reaching them gave the explanation that they were not searching for it at the moment. In addition, some said that an active search was needed ± for which they had no time or did not know where to look. These answers could be seen as an indicator that many companies that are not reached by information on new technologies in their field of work would be interested in getting it. The limiting factor is that the gathering of this type of information requires an investment in effort and time.
In relation to provision of specific information on an important aspect of a company's operations, namely environmental legislation, the sampled companies were asked to give their opinion as to whether enough information is reaching them. The results gathered are shown in Table VII.
Furthermore, companies were asked to judge the impact of new environmental legislation (new or within the past three years) in their company. Replies given are shown in Table VIII.
Respondents were also asked to rate their level of information on environmental legislation. Replies are shown in Table IX.
In relation to their requirements, companies were asked whether there is a need to review/redesign the curricula of training providers (e.g. universities,
Table VI.
Amount of information on latest environmental technologies reaching companies
Replies No. of companies
Yes, a great deal 54
Yes, to some extent 82
Very little 30
Replies No. of companies
Yes, a great deal 104
Yes, to some extent 64
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colleges, training centres) to allow more provision for environmental issues. From 190 companies, 112 (59 per cent) replied positively and 27 said there was no such need.
With regard to the themes that priority should be given to which ± the following distribution was obtained from companies (themes with ten or more replies):
. Environmental legislation and the Environmental Code.
. Environmental economy and accounting.
. Recycling.
. General or basic environmental knowledge/ecology.
As could be expected, some other themes were mentioned more frequently than others. Among the least frequently mentioned ones are: renewable energy and energy consumption; Life Cycle Analysis and product development/ design.
Another question posed was whether the sampled companies have an
internal training programme on the environment. Nearly 60 per cent replied negatively, although, especially in small companies, continuing provisions for training are of great relevance both for competition purposes and from an education perspective.
Issues included in the education programmes present at the companies were: basic environmental education, EMS, ISO 14001, LCA, environmental procurement, environmental legislation, environmental impacts (by a company and its products), IT, national and local environmental objectives and also security and risk assessment. Specific issues mentioned were, among others, environmental impacts from chemicals and the transport and emission of VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds).
Still related to training, companies were asked to state whether they would require some further training for their staff on environmental matters. Replies are shown in Table X.
Table VIII. Impact of new environmental legislation in companies
Replies No. of companies
They have led to an increase in their level of activity 103
They have led to a decrease in their level of activity 2
There has been little or no change at all 79
Table IX. Level of information on environmental legislation in companies
Replies No. of companies
I think I am sufficiently informed 65
I could be better informed 112
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As to the themes/topics for training, the following topics were emphasised:
. EMS ± Environmental Management Systems and environmental
management.
. LCA ± Life Cycle Assessment.
. EPD ± Environmental Product declaration.
. Legislation/Environmental Code.
. Material and products environmental impact.
. General updates.
Beside these issues, other themes such as project management and market analyses were referred to. The ways via which training should be delivered is also an important piece of information. In this context, companies have stated their preferences as seen in Table XI, indicating that they are fairly relaxed as far as the venue is concerned, albeit a preference to training within their own premises was recorded.
In relation to how long should such training ideally last, answers were mixed and are shown in Table XII.
Information provisions are also seen as important to a company's competitiveness and in this connection companies were asked to indicate whether they see the current provision of information materials dealing with environmental issues as sufficient. From the 190 sampled companies, 126 said yes and 55 replied negatively, which shows that for some companies provision of such information is not enough.
Table X.
Whether companies require further training for staff on
environmental matters
Replies No. of companies
Yes 98
Replies No. of companies
At the company 68
Outside the company 54
Via distance education 13
It does not matter where 52
Table XII. Suggested length of training
Replies No. of companies
A compact one-day session 47
A two-day session 23
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The sample was also asked to indicate how they would rate their access to reference materials. Results are shown in Table XIII.
Respondents were also asked to rate their own need for training in this respect. Replies are shown in Table XIV.
Following a question asking if there was an interest in undergoing training towards a more interdisciplinary-oriented environmental conservation, 107 said ``yes'' and 45 said ``no''.
The companies were given an opportunity to explain why they were not interested in doing so. The answers related to the fact that they did not identify a need for such education in their business and/or had other priorities. Other explanations presented were the lack of time required for such an education; the small size of the company or the age of the owner himself/herself.
Conclusions and recommendations
There is a wide range of conclusions that can be taken from the FEESE study, but the main ones are as follows:
. The environmental technology field is an area sensitive to changes in
market demands in terms of provision of goods and services but also regarding competence and skills. Sweden has a strong environment sector, with a diversified basis in both technical services and skills. The contribution of the Swedish environmental technology sector to the country's economy is significant and ± proportionally ± even higher than that seen in Germany or in the USA.
. The prospects of employment of individuals with environmental
qualifications in the sample of companies are to be considered moderate, since more than half of the companies in the sample stated that they will employ between one and five persons within the following 12 months. This in practice means that, despite its relevance, the levels of employment in the environment sector are likely to grow slowly, being influenced by the national and international context.
Table XIII. Companies' access to reference materials
Replies No. of companies
Very satisfied 32
Satisfied 93
Poor 42
Very poor 7
Table XIV. Respondents' need for training
Replies No. of companies
Very high 8
High 65
Low 54
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. There is a perceived need to provide companies with more information
on environmental issues. This is particularly so in respect of environmental legislation, since poorly informed companies pose a risk to themselves and a threat to others. A mechanism should be put in place to address this problem.
. A number of companies think their training requirements are not being
fully met, which shows the need for some sort of reaction from those providing training. Here one can see a clear ``wake up call'' for universities and colleges in Sweden, which should review their training provisions and delivery means, so as to meet the needs of industry in a more meaningful way.
. The practical skills of students need to be enhanced and, once again, the
institutions providing training should strive to achieve that. The means to do this may include, for example, more placements as part of degree programmes.
. It is a clear conclusion from the study that present and future employees
should develop skills in the fields of environmental law, in respect of technical environmental issues, in relation to environmental management, environmental ethics, environmental policies and environmental education and communication. This should be made clear to training providers.
. The surveyed companies have shown a strong interest in information
and the development of technologies in fields such as LCA, GIS, EIA and environmental economics. Moreover, as far as education is concerned, most companies were in general open to the opportunity to take part in further education and many stated that they would require some further training for their staff on environmental matters.
. Around three out of four companies in the survey think that emphasis
on environmental issues in their company will increase in the future; two out of five think that the emphasis will remain the same in the future and only three companies replied that the emphasis will decrease. This can be seen as an indicator that the companies have confidence in the future prospects of their business activities.
There is little doubt that the development of the environmental technology sector in Sweden will depend on the ability of training providers to address the needs listed here, with which companies will be in a better position to compete both nationally and internationally. In addition, companies should be encouraged to meet their own information needs by means of continuing education programmes, preferably with the active support of training providers.
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doing so, it can be ensured that full advantage will be taken of the potential offered by the Swedish environmental technology sector as a source of employment and as a tool for economic growth.
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