Changes in International Business Operations within the Global Efforts for Environmental Protection

In the modern world the international business in all its forms and varieties is an integral and vital part of the economy of each country. It changes depending on the economic climate and the prob­lems that each society individually has to solve as well as humanity as a whole. In recent decades, however, more and more important becomes not just getting rich and achieving economic growth but achieving it through sustainable development, by protecting the environment and keeping it for the future generations. This paper is devoted to the changes that occur in the different forms of international business due to the influence exactly of these global efforts to protect the environment. The continuous care for the environment and the great attention to sustainable development issues inevitably affect the international business. In al­most all international business operations there are very visible changes caused by the desire to pro­tect nature, which results in making them “green”. For example, modern forms of international busi­ness such as franchising and public-private part­nership suffer some modifications in the context of environmental protection. Traditional operations such as purchase or supply chain also change because of the sustainable development. The paper also presents results of an empirical study carried out among Bulgarian companies on their participation in the process of Bulgarian economy “greening” conducted within the research project “Global challenges in environment protection and the changes in international business operations”