Environmental technologies – Growth opportunity for Austria's economy

Austria needs new growth impulses over the long term. The opening of Eastern Europe, which has driven economic growth for the past decade, will peak by 2010 at the latest. For this reason, increased innovation in high-tech areas such as environmental technology is urgently needed, because their share of GDP still lags behind in international comparison. Especially drastic is the gap in the energy efficiency segment, which in Germany already accounts for 2.1% of the GDP. In Austria this figure is just 0.2%. The same is true for recycling and waste management: Germany has outstripped Austria there, too.

Yet at the same time, Austrian companies currently play a leading role on the international scene in renewable energies, energy efficiency and recycling. Environmental technology in Austria will become a leading industry by 2030 with more than EUR 30 billion in sales and 20,000 new jobs, pushing wood processing and chemicals into the background. Environmental technology will therefore more than quadruple its share of sales among all business fields from its current 2%.

The Austrian government's master plan envisions new cooperation between politics, administration, business and science; now it's just a matter of implementing the ideas. – In 2020, environmental industries worldwide will produce sales of about EUR 2.2 trillion, therefore establishing themselves as the new boom industry of the 21st century.

The study was based on the "Germany Innovation Atlas" project that Roland Berger Strategy Consultants conducted for Germany's Federal Ministry for the Environment.