THE DYNAMIC SME SECTOR IN BULGARIA WAS PRESENTED AT COP28
Successful solutions in sectors, such as disposable packaging, agriculture and transport were presented by the participants in the panel "Small and Medium Enterprises as Innovation Leaders in Ecosystems", held at the Bulgarian pavilion at the COP28 Climate Conference in Dubai, hosted by the Ministry of Environment and Water.
The session featured how Bulgarian SMEs are adhering to green innovation activities in logistics, circular modelling, and nature-based solutions.
"Disposable packaging is a major polluter for the environment, both because of its carbon footprint and the fact that much of it ends up in landfills or is incinerated. Disposable packaging is a source of microplastics, which pollute the environment, penetrate food and the organisms that consume it," said Gergana Krusteva-Georgieva from Cupffee. The Bulgarian company offers edible cups as an alternative to plastic and paper cups. "The production process is zero waste, water is only used for the 'recipe' and the cups disintegrate naturally within two weeks if thrown away," she said. This precludes a major source of pollution, given that it is the disposal of single-use packaging that has the largest carbon footprint in its life cycle.
"Another big source of greenhouse emissions is the agriculture sector – 10% of the total," said Hristo Nikolov of Carbonsafe Ltd. "Regenerative agriculture practices can offset these emissions, as well as prevent erosion and increase soil fertility. The carbon absorbed into the soil in this way can also be certified and become an additional source of income for farmers," he added.
"We need to overcome the ‘industrial way of life and thinking’", said Hristo Popov from Theoremus - the company that contributed to introducing the system for purchase of tickets with debit and credit cards in public transportation in Sofia. "The system of electricity generation, consumption and transmission, which started with Thomas Edison, has not changed much in practice in the last 150 years," he said. "The thinking we have inherited needs to change, and by changing it, we can change the way we create prototype and defend their potential outcome. The advantage of technical enterprises in the SME sector is that we can quickly make prototypes based on scientific theories," the entrepreneur noted.
"There are tens of thousands of SMEs in Bulgaria and they are the biggest employer in the country," recalled Emil Botusharov from the technology company ITA Group Bulgaria. "It is crucial for the development of the ecosystem that every company concentrates on performing to the best of its abilities in its field of activity, instead of expanding at any cost," he recommended.