ENVIRONMENTAL AND ENERGY MANAGEMENT

This I-Note presents additional data with respect to environmental management and energy consumption/efficiency practices from the Energy, Water and Environment Survey for the 2011-12 reference year.


Comparison with other ABS statistics

The environmental and energy use management figures presented in this publication are not directly compared with the statistics appearing in the previous 4660.0 publication. Specifically, there have been significant form design changes since 2008-09. Namely, the introduction of new questions to indicate if a business implemented improvements to environmental management and if they attempted to reduce energy consumption and/or improve energy efficiency.

Additionally, the scope for the tables on Environmental and Energy Use Management is different to all other datacubes in this release as it excludes the following:
· Water Supply, Sewerage and Drainage Services (ANZSIC Subdivision 28);
· Public administration (ANZSIC Subdivision 75);
· Defence (ANZSIC Subdivision 76);
· General government (SISCA 3000);
· MNEUs in subdivisions 30, 31, 32, 46, 51, 67

ENVIRONMENTAL AND ENERGY

During the 2011-12 reference period 38.0% of businesses undertook environmental management activities. Large businesses indicated a participation rate of 79.3% in contrast to small businesses with 36.8%.

The industries with the highest participation rate for environmental management activity were Electricity, gas, water and waste services industry and the Manufacturing industry with 54.5% and 53.1% respectively.

The most common type of environmental management practice was recycling or reuse of materials with 33.7% of businesses undertaking this activity.

Large businesses were more likely to have an environmental impact assessment/risk assessment, with 43.0%, in contrast to 6.1% of small businesses.

The following data reflect the results for businesses which indicated that they had implemented improvements to environmental management practices during 2011-12. The major motivating factor for these businesses to implement improvements was ethical reasons, accounting for 50.0% of total selected industries. Large businesses indicated their major motivations were cost savings (63.7%), ethical reasons (60.6%), improving or maintaining company reputation and/or public relations (52.7%) and compliance with Government regulations (51.5%). Small businesses also cited ethical reasons and cost saving as major motivators, with 48.9% and 37.3% respectively.

The following data reflect only the results for businesses which indicated that they had attempted to reduce energy consumption and/or improve energy efficiency during 2011-12. Of these businesses, 29.5% indicated that a major barrier in achieving this reduction was the length of time it took to recuperate their costs, referred to as payback time. In terms of business size, 48.5% of large businesses indicated that this was a major barrier, in contrast to 28.4% of small businesses.