Companies spend a lot of money on environmental protection

In 2013, corporate spending on environmental protection amounted to around CHF 2.3 billion. Compared with 2009, investment in pollution prevention increased by 30 percent, while investment in pollution treatment decreased by 31 percent. This development reflects, among other things, companies' increased interest in cleaner production processes. These are some of the findings of a survey conducted by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office (SFSO).

In 2013, spending by companies in the secondary and tertiary sectors on environmental protection included 1.727 billion current expenditures (internal expenditures, purchase of services and municipal fees) and 537 million francs for investments in pollution prevention or treatment. Total expenditures reached 2.264 billion francs, a similar amount to 2009, the last year of the survey. However, due to economic growth during this period, the burden on businesses fell from 0.39 percent to 0.36 percent of GDP.

Cleaner technologies gain ground
Compared with 2009, pollution prevention investments increased by 30 percent at current prices, while pollution treatment investments decreased by 31 percent. Pollution prevention investments as a share of total pollution prevention investments increased from 65 percent to 77 percent, while the share for treatment decreased from 35 percent to 23 percent. This development reflects, among other things, the increased interest of companies in cleaner technologies and production processes that make it possible to reduce or even completely avoid environmental pollution instead of treating pollution that has occurred.

Seven out of ten francs for waste and wastewater management
Between 2009 and 2013, the shares of environmental protection expenditures for waste and for wastewater management remained stable (46% and 25% in 2013, respectively). The share of spending on air pollution control and climate protection decreased from 14 to 11 percent, while the share of spending on other environmental areas (e.g. noise abatement, biodiversity and landscape protection, soil and groundwater protection) increased from 15 to 18 percent.

Swiss industry not disadvantaged in European comparison
In 2013, industry's expenditure on environmental protection amounted to around CHF 1 billion. At current prices, this is almost 6 percent less than in 2009 and 16 percent less than in 2003. The financial burden of this expenditure on Swiss industry thus fell from 1.2 percent of gross value added in 2003 to 0.9 percent in 2009 and 0.8 percent in 2013. In European industry (EU28), the burden amounted to 2.3 percent in 2013.

The decline in spending in Swiss industry does not necessarily mean that this sector is less committed to environmental protection. Possible reasons also include structural changes in favor of less polluting activities, cleaner production processes or more favorable treatment of the pollution generated.

(FSO)