Borusan publishes its 10th Sustainability Report

Publishing its 2019-2020 Sustainability Report, Borusan Group takes pride in having generated 3,600 GWh of clean energy and prevented 1,8 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions throughout this period

Borusan publishes its Sustainability Report for the 10th time since 2009. Addressing its sustainability strategy with a focus on the key areas of Climate, Human and Innovation, i.e., the “İ3”, Borusan Holding aims to achieve the highest level of sustainability performance in the activities and projects it implements.

Ahmet Kocabıyık, Chairman of Board of Directors at Borusan Holding said, while growing their institution in a sustainable way with the power they get from their well-equipped R&D resource, they had aligned their products and services with the “İ3” strategy.

Erkan Kafadar, Borusan Holding Grup CEO, suggested that, fostering innovative, high value-added, and competitive products and processes in light of their sustainable business model, they had invested more than 213.2 million TL in R&D activities in 2019-2020 to develop these technologies.

Viewing the concept of sustainability as a main building block of its business processes, Borusan published its Sustainability Report for the 10th time since 2009. Committed to carrying out its sustainability efforts by drawing inspiration from the world to inspire the future across the focus areas of Climate, Human, and Innovation, i.e., the “ݳ” (first letters of the Turkish words for climate, human, and innovation), Borusan produced the report also driven by this strategy. Addressing sustainability as a construct with stakeholders at its core, and aiming for generating “benefit” across the focus areas it has established, Borusan Group ensured that the report reflects the two-year sustainability efforts covering the activities carried out from 2019 to 2020 in the manufacturing, machinery and power systems as well as automotive, logistics, and energy industries where it operates. Incorporating the activities undertaken in Turkey by Borusan Group Companies Borçelik, Borusan Cat, Borusan EnBw Enerji, Borusan Port, Borusan Lojistik, Borusan Mannesmann, Borusan Automative Group and Supsan, the report explores the impacts of these activities from environmental, social and economic perspectives. Drawn up in accordance with the principles of the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), of which Borsan is a signatory since 2006, and in light of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines, the report elaborates on the performance of the companies by providing facts and figures.

“Borusan continues to grow sustainably”

Noting that they had reviewed Borusan Group's strategy with a holistic perspective by adapting it to the requirements of the current era, Ahmet Kocabıyık, Chairman of the Board of Directors at Borusan Holding, they shaped their sustainability strategy by drawing inspiration from the focus areas of "Climate, Human, and Innovation". "Within the framework of our “İ3” strategy, we aim to enrich every step we take with a multiple value creation approach characterized by measurable goals and tocreate long-term value in a way that leaves our mark both socially and environmentally" said Kocabıyık and suggested that while ensuring that Borusan grows sustainably with the power they take from our well-equipped R&D resource, they have aligned their products and services with the “İ3” strategy.

“We uphold our responsibility to bequeath a livable future”

Indicating that, as Borusan Group, they were driven by sentiment of “Drawing Inspiration from the World to Inspire the Future”, and nurturing their goal of becoming a 200-year company with their 77-year long-established corporate culture, Erkan Kafadar, Borusan Holding Group CEO noted: “We are empowered by the way we respond to the climate crisis, we get our inspiration from our investment in people and society, and our desire to create novelty is driven by the value we place on innovative ideas. We are aware that the concept of sustainability entails environmental, social, economic, and governance issues, and these issues interact closely with one another. In light of our sustainable business model focusing on climate, people, and innovation, we invested more than 213.2 million TL in R&D activities in 2019-2020 to develop technologies that will pave the way for innovative, high value-added, and competitive products and processes. In this context, we strive to be of service to our world by investing on the environment, R&D, innovation, and digitalization, and we bring our activities in line with the Sustainable Development Goals with the help of our employees and investments. As Borusan, we uphold our responsibility to bequeath a livable future. In times like this when we recognize, once again, the importance of nature, green lands and forests, we learn through hands-on experience how valuable even a single sapling is for our future. This is why, we cherish -more than ever- our afforestation and wildlife conservation efforts during these trying times. We will keep working to achieve this goal and inspiring others in the field of sustainability”.

1,8 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions prevented

Having reduced the environmental impacts of its operations with a sense of responsibility for the nature as part of its efforts in the focus area of climate, Borusan forwarded 2.5 million tons of solid waste for recycling, ensuring that they re-enter the country's economy. In addition, 131 kg of garbage was cleaned from Gemlik Bay in 2020 as part of the Seabed Cleaning project and water consumption at Tobalı reservoir was reduced by 46 percent compared to the previous year, thanks to the set washing unit installed in the area. Borusan implemented several projects to ensure efficient use of natural resources, as well. Within the scope of the TOM Solar Energy project developed by Borusan Lojistik, 758,269.48 kWh of energy was generated, 3.600 GWh of which was clean energy including good practices and energy production. This is how 1.8 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions were prevented.

Toplumsal ve bireysel refah için fırsat eşitliği

Believing that success can only be achieved by virtue of people, and embracing a human-oriented corporate culture, Borusan prioritizes providing its employees with a happy, healthy and safe working environment in an effort to promote social development under the theme "human". Driven by the understanding that the way to social and individual welfare is through equal opportunities and gender equality, Borusan increased the number of its female executives in top management by 21 percent in the 2019-2020 period, and offered 400,000 hours of training to its staff members within a time span of two years. 3-year gender mainstreaming targets were established as part of the Gender Lens Program, and the Borusan Gender Equality and Domestic Violence Manual was published. With more than 1,000 members, Borusan Ocean Volunteers volunteered for around 22,400 hours in 59 projects in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. As part of the #EducationonHanger project, more than 12.000 university students who had difficulty in accessing distance education were reached out and provided with a series of resources including computers, internet packages, and access to online education platforms.

Healing power of arts was resorted

More than 100.000 people watched the 2019 concerts of Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra (BIPO) and Borusan Quartet. Having faith in the healing power of arts, Borusan Sanat decided to increase the number of season concerts from 12-14 to 28 in an effort to adapt to the new context of pandemic. By presenting these concerts live from the radio to the audience, the target audience was expanded. Focusing on the New Media arts, Borusan Contemporary hosted 14,388 visitors in 2019. In 2020, 6,266 people physically visited Borusan Contemporary’s exhibitions while 78,491 people viewed the exhibitions n through digital platforms.

TL 213,2 million invested in R&D

Viewing innovation as an indispensable tool of a business model that can successfullymaintain its existence in the future, Borusan continues to dream, design, and produceinnovative ideas for a new age, under its theme of Innovation, which is a part ofinspiration for the future approach. The company undertook investments the fields of digitalization, innovation, and entrepreneurship, and it invested around TL 213.2 million in R&D over the 2019-2020 period. While 85 new robotic process automation robots were commissioned in 2019, more than 120 software robots were introduced, thanks to which around 27 thousand hours of labor were saved. Borusan also introduced the app “Sağlık Olsun (For the Sake of Health)” which enable employees to answer questions related to possible COVID-19 symptoms and contact tracing prior to their commute to work. With the use of the “Sağlık Olsun” bracelet, the risk of spread was reduced and production at the factories continued without interruption.

Target set at 1.5 million trees

In parallel with its operations, Borusan will be taking part in a meaningful project in partnership with ecording, a social enterprise that develop sustainable and innovative environmental technologies for tackling the climate crises. As part of this project, balls of seeds prepared by local female producers will be dropped from ecording's drones to a hard-to-reach area to be designated by the Ministry of Forestry. With this project, Borusan aims to plant 177,000 seeds in celebration of its 77th anniversary, bringing the number of trees it has planted over the past decade to more than 1.5 million.

To view Borusan's Sustainability Report, please click the link:

2019-2020 Sustainability Report

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