Development of the Methodology for the Business Tendency Measurement of Technological and Digital Activity in the Field of Greening of Industrial Enterprises in Russia

The objective of the article is to outline the current methodology and prepare development proposals to provide business tendency monitoring in terms of measuring the technological and digital activity of Russian manufacturing enterprises in the field of greening.

The article covers the existing statistical toolkit and reflects key directions for improving (starting from 2018) the methodology under consideration. The authors show a specific empirical case through the presentation of the obtained monitoring results. At the same time, the main indicators used to assess progress in the field of green technologies and the environmental friendliness of organizations in international practice are given. The analysis was based on quantified data from annual business tendency surveys of digital activity of Russian manufacturing enterprises for 2019–2020, including a set of indicators characterizing technological and digital activity in the field of greening and increasing resource efficiency.

The results obtained indicate that despite the small scale of the current use of digital tools that contribute to the effective achievement of environmental goals and objectives in the ecological and economic production system in 2020, there was an active spread of activity in this area compared to 2019. In particular, the recorded trends were traced within the framework of measures aimed at improving energy efficiency, efficiency of water use and raw materials, as well as waste disposal. In addition, monitoring showed that respondents from most sub-sectors in 2020 expected the emerging positive trends to strengthen in the short term in all major areas of the green agenda.

The trends identified and outlined in the study indicate that for Russia, expanding the depth and coverage of statistical observations of the process of greening industries, including with the help of business tendency observation apparatus, is an urgent task that requires constant improvement of methodological support in terms of the tools used and data analysis, as well as construction of new meters, including the corresponding composite indicators.

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