The findings of a study conducted by Easynet und TNS Infratest claim that environmental protection is not among the top priorities of German companies. In the course of the study about 4500 employees from all parts of Europe were interviewed on the most important business objectives of their employers. Thus, in a ranking listing eight European countries Germany is in the penultimate position in terms of environmental awareness.
Even though German environmental protection technologies are in very high demand worldwide and more than 6% of German exports are generated by this kind of industry, these technologies are hardly applied in Germany itself: To German companies environmental protection is only half as important as the average importance attached to this issue at a European scale, says the study. Spaniards and Belgians, however, consider the environmental commitment of their employers to be exemplary. This was recently confirmed by another survey in Belgium: back in summer 2007 a survey among European IT decision makers showed that in Europe the Benelux countries are those countries in which managers attach the biggest importance to the environmental compatibility of their investment decisions. Once more, in this survey it turned out that Germany was only in the last but one position. 