Ecoinnovation of enterprises operating in Poland against the background of European Union countries

Ecoinnovation is any innovation that leads to sustainable development by limiting the negative impact of production activities on the environment, increasing the resilience of nature to loads or ensuring greater efficiency and responsibility in the use of natural resources. Ecoinnovations are the opportunity for enterprises. Their introduction contributes to reducing the costs of doing business, allows you to take advantage of new opportunities development and positively affects the company’s image. The main goal of the research is to recognize the situation and the level of ecoinnovation in Poland, including the micro, small and medium enterprises sector and to compare the obtained results with the ones from European Union countries. The result of the research is indicating the barriers and opportunities to support the development of ecoinnovation in the micro, small and medium enterprises sector in Poland. Lack of financial resources for ecoinnovation was indicated as the largest barrier by MSMEs in Poland. The most significant barriers to ecoinnovation in Poland are mainly of an economic nature, including the high cost of implementation, difficult access to capital, uncertain return on investment and the weak system of economic and fiscal incentives encouraging ecoinnovation.