The Motives and Benefits of Environmental Management Systems – the Case of Bulgarian Companies

Abstract

Taking into account the shortfalls of the regulative and economic instruments, a third wave of entirely new instruments emerged in the EU economic policy at the end of the 20th century – the instruments of the voluntary approach. They appear in response to the need for effective and flexible instrument to overcome the limitations and difficulties of the existing policy. They are engagements that the business undertakes voluntarily to improve their ecological performance. One of the most widely distributed instruments for management of the ecological performance are the Environmental Management Systems (EMS). They contribute to the decrease of the ecologic footprint, facilitate the identification of various risks and hazards and provide the possibility for the company to demonstrate environmentally responsible behaviour in front of the customers and the society in general. Based on a research of 137 companies in the country, the current article aims at presenting an overview and evaluation of the motives and benefits of the EMS implementation by the Bulgarian companies. The analysis shows that the business in Bulgaria identifies as main drivers for EMS introduction mainly external economic factors – normative regulation, eligibility criteria for tenders, improvement of the competitiveness and better market performance.