Eco-Innovations in Bulgarian Companies with Pro-Environmental Policy

The innovations play a significant role in accomplishing economic growth and bring additional potential for improvement of the business competitiveness. In the last years the innovations related to environment preservation are subject to ever growing interest by the companies and the society. In the same time the EU ecological policy through Environment Management systems (EMS) approach encourage and stimulate the companies to invest in eco-innovations. Therefore, the present paper analyses the relationship between EMS and the activity of the Bulgarian companies in development and introductions of ecological technologies in the recent years. The conclusions am based on the results of a direct-individual-interview study conducted among Bulgarian companies from different sectors with implemented and functioning environmental management systems according to the international standard ISO 14001 and/ or EMAS. The obtained data revealed that the implementation of eco-innovations is in direct dependency of the economic sector and the market where the company operates as well as of the introduced regulatory requirements and the activities of the control bodies.