The 7th “Environmental Manager Day Southeast Europe”, organized by the Bulgarian section of the German Association for Environment and Sustainability (VNU), took place on 10.10.2019 in Sofia under the motto “From practice to practice”. The event provided opportunity for the sharing of knowledge and experience between environmental managers and experts throughout industry and government administration.
The forum was opened by Dr. Heinz Herzog, a representative of the VNU Board, who read a welcome letter from the Chairman of the Board, Mr. Lennart Schleicher, and then focused on the activities and challenges of the Association. The special guests of the event, Mr. Krasimir Zhivkov, Bulgarian Deputy Minister of Environment and Water, and Dr. Mitko Vasilev, Chairman of the Bulgarian-German Chamber of Commerce, also presented their welcome address to the participants and organizers of the event.
The agenda included a variety of topics about changes in environmental legal requirements as well as best practices, ideas and solutions for ensuring compliance and continuous sustainability.
The event continued with a striking motivational speech from pilot Mario Bakalov, the only Bulgarian pilot to have flown the biggest aircraft in the world, the Airbus A380. In an extremely motivating story he presented his personal journey and the challenges for aviation in environmental protection and sustainable business.
With his great practical experience and knowledge, Attorney Dimitar Stoimenov introduced the audience to the environmental regulatory requirements and the benefits gained through ensuring compliance throughout the life cycle of a facility or installation – from the investment phase to the day-to-day operations. The topic was continued by Mr. Heiko Schmidt (Chairman of the VNU Bulgarian Section) who introduced opportunities for the development of specific and/or the usage of existing software solutions for monitoring the applicable legal and other requirements in organizations to ensure timely implementation of measures resulting from them.
The current topic of “Seveso” enterprises was also of great interest. Mr. Boyko Malinov introduced to the participants the latest changes in environmental legislation and requirements in Bulgaria while Dr. Heinz Herzog presented European best practices and his experience in the implementation of Seveso III Directive. The topic provided great discussion with examples from daily practice and exploration of the challenges in the industry. Parallel to the discussions, stimulating presentations were provided on the use of specialised equipment together with dry ice as a blasting agent for the cleaning of industrial contaminants.
All of the attendees expressed satisfaction with their participation in the event and made suggestions for topics to be addressed in future events.
The next “Environmental Manager Day Southeast Europe” hosted by the Bulgarian Section of the German Association for Environment and Sustainability (VNU) is scheduled for October 22, 2020 in the Grand Hotel Sofia.
