The second edition of the Sustainability Academy: The Road to Sustainable Practices and Processes, organized by United Bulgarian Bank AD (UBB), part of the KBC Group in Bulgaria, in partnership with Cleantech Bulgaria, gathered in one place representatives of businesses, local government, experts and organizations, who exchanged experience, ideas and good practices. These aimed at implementing sustainable development models and acceleration of the green transformation in Bulgaria.

The forum was declared open by Diyana Dimitrova-Kamenova, Executive Director SME Banking at UBB, who stated that sustainability was part of the daily processes at the Bank and a key factor upon decision-making. She emphasized the role of financial institutions as partners of businesses, by pointing out the Circular Economy and InvestEU - Competitiveness for SMEs guarantee programmes that created an additional opportunity for investments and implementation of projects in the sustainability domain.

Mariyana Hamanova, Executive Director of Cleantech Bulgaria stated that regardless of the constantly changing environment the Sustainability Academy continued its successful development. In her words, the key to successful transformation was long-term partnerships and the access to funding. Participants were also welcomed by Vesna Baltina, Deputy Mayor Strategic Development and Ecology, Digitalization and Adaptation to Climate Changes at Burgas Municipality.

Emil Kalchev, Chief Economist of UBB, delineated the economic picture since the beginning of 2026, when Bulgaria became part of the Eurozone. He pointed out that the services sector formed 65.6% of Bulgaria’s GDP in the first quarter of 2026. In his words, long-term forecasts remained positive, and the average annual harmonized inflation was expected to be 4.1% in 2026 and to gradually slow down to 3.2% in 2027 and 2.6% in 2028.

Dobromir Simidchiev, Executive Director of Hydrolia, presented water resources as a strategic factor for every business. He singled out the key instruments to their more effective management being the measuring and monitoring, asset management, enhancing the efficiency, water re-use and building of partnerships.

The topic about the practical application of sustainable practices and processes was in the focus of the panel discussion, involving Assoc. Prof. Marina Stefanova, PhD, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Economics at Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski, Anton Andonov, architect at Thermal Engineering, Tsanka Taneva, Commercial Director for Bulgaria at Evrotrust, Nikolay Kirov, General Manager of MESSU, Martin Minkovski, Supervisor European Projects and Financial Instruments at UBB.

This forum is part of the Sustainability Academy initiative, bringing together more than 3000 companies and helping small and medium-sized enterprises through training, tools and expertise. UBB has been supporting this initiative since 2024. The Academy modules include sustainable funding, and during this year another module, dedicated to sustainable management of water resources has been also added.