A EUROBAROMETER SURVEY shows European SMEs added more green jobs, made improvements in resource efficiency and are contributing to the transition to a low-carbon economy.

The European Commission published the extensive survey to gauge the views and attitudes of  EU SMEs towards green jobs, resource efficiency and green markets.

It examined over 11,000 small and medium businesses in the 28 EU member states.

The survey pointed out that:

SMEs find it more difficult to comply with environmental legislation than large companies. A lack of expertise, lengthy approval procedures for new products and a lack of consumer demand are the main obstacles that prevent SMEs from entering the green markets.

It found that four out of every ten SMEs in the EU have at least one green job.

Ireland was shown to have a full-time green employee in 42 per cent of its SMEs.

The survey also found a hunger for improvement with 93 per cent of EU SMEs taking at least one action to be more resource efficient.

The most common actions were to minimise waste at 67 per cent, and save energy also 67 per cent.

At least half are also recycling.

The research also found that:

The majority of SMEs in the EU act to become more resource efficient in order to reduce costs (63%), although 28% say the environment is one of the top priorities for their company.

Just over one quarter, 26 per cent, of SMEs in the EU offer green products or services, but a further 7 per cent are planning to do so in the next two years.

The survey found that overall the picture has not changed since 2012 and that there are still large differences across countries.

The EU averaged 36 per cent when questioned if companies across the EU offered green products or services.

Ireland come in at 34 per cent.

At least nine out of ten SMEs selling green products or services say their own country is their main market in terms of annual turnover (91%). Almost one in five (19%) say their main market is the EU and /or Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. Only 7% say that their main market is outside of Europe.

SMEs in the EU say that grants and subsidies would help make their company more resource efficient.

One third of SMEs don’t understand their energy bills and 86 per cent don’t know how to lower them>

Irish SMEs are among the most reliant on banks in Europe>

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