Low Carbon Heroes Announced at the 7th Istanbul Carbon E-Summit

Sustainable Consumption and Production Association (SPCA) organized the 7th Istanbul Carbon E-Summit on September 28, 2021 with the main support of the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization and Istanbul Technical University (ITU). Within the scope of the E-Summit, companies that implement social and technical practices to reduce their carbon footprint by reducing greenhouse gas emissions were rewarded.

VII. Istanbul Carbon Summit organized by the Sustainable Consumption and Production Association (SPCA) with the support of the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization and Istanbul Technical University was held online this year with the title "Green Recovery for a Climate Resilient Turkey: The Role of Waste and Energy Management". In the e-summit, where there was an intense participation, high-level representatives of the business world as well as the public sector and academics who are experts in their fields took part as speakers.

In his message for the summit, where the importance of carbon management for our country and our planet was emphasized, Environment and Urbanization Deputy Minister and Climate Change Chief Negotiator Prof. Dr. Mehmet Emin Birpınar said the following: “We see the climate change problem as a security issue without borders and above politics. Accordingly, we continue our efforts to combat climate change with determination.”

Orhan Solak, Head of Climate Change and Adaptation Department of the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization, pointed at Turkey’s being a party to the Paris Climate Agreement and 2053 net zero target statements and said, “Political decisions require serious work. We can say that the real process begins after that. All of our institutions and sectors will be involved in a serious transformation in this sense.”

“We continue our work on the climate crisis relentlessly”

ITU Rector Prof. Dr. İsmail Koyuncu said that ITU ranked first in Turkey, 37th in Europe and 71st in the world in the GreenMetric rankings, which evaluates university campuses in terms of greenness and sustainability. In his speech, Prof. Dr. Koyuncu mentioned that ITU has an active role in Turkey’s fight with the climate crisis and expressed that ITU, a research university, in addition to carrying out education activities, tries to do joint work with every institution it can contact at national and international level and stands by the state, industrialists and entrepreneurs in every project where sustainability is at the center. Stating that President Erdoğan emphasized that Turkey will continue its fight against climate change by ratifying the Paris Climate Agreement, Prof. Dr. Koyuncu said the following: “With the important statement of our President, it was once again declared at the global level that our country will maintain and never compromise its vision of combating climate change, which has been intensely pursued since 2015. Of course, as one of the oldest technical universities in our country, we follow this vision and continue our work on the climate crisis with all our stakeholders.”

Our industry must grow climate resilient by reducing greenhouse gas emissions

ITU Faculty Member and SPCA Chair Prof. Dr. Filiz Karaosmanoğlu expressed that by reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the industry, a climate crisis resilient growth and increasing our export power in this way is possible. Prof. Dr. Karaosmanoğlu emphasized the need to support investments and good practices for green transformation, and said, “As SPCA, we aimed to encourage organizations that contribute to the development of sustainable life by making an impact on the increase of carbon management capacity of our country with their social and technical practices for low carbon footprint of manufacturing, production and products. We present the Low Carbon Heroes Awards to thank all our companies that strive for the nature and future of our country. Each of our 30 organizations, to which we presented awards at this summit, carried out very valuable works.”

Sustainable Consumption and Production Association 2021 Low Carbon Heroes

1. AKADEMİ ÇEVRE: Sustainable Talks
2. AKÇANSA: Alternative Fuel Movement for Sustainable Tomorrows
3. AKSA DOĞALGAZ: Paperless Office, Carbonless Green Accounting
4. ASELSAN: With Our Value Chain, Our Power is United in Climate Change
5. AYDEM RENEWABLES: Akıncı HEPP, Breath for the Future
6. BASF TÜRK KİMYA: Carbon Saving at BASF TÜRK Çayırova Facility
7. BECTON DICKINSON TÜRKİYE: BD Emerald™ Syringes
8. BENLİ RECYCLING TECHNOLOGIES: Add Value to Waste, Create the Future
9. BETA KİMYA: Step by Step to “0” Carbon
10. BIOTREND ENERGY: From Garbage to Electricity, from Electricity to the Future
11. BSH TÜRKİYE: Less Carbon, More Comfortable Breathing
12. CARGILL TÜRKİYE: FR3® Power to Nature
13. ÇİM-NAK TAŞIMACILIK: Electrification in E-Çimnak Construction Equipment
14. ENERJİSA ÜRETİM: Improving the Power Plant Hot Start Process
15. EPİAŞ: YEK-G System and Organized YEK-G Market
16. HKTM: Sensitive Company, Conscious Employee
17. ITC: At ITC Medical Waste is “Sterile”, Emission is “Zero”
18. İSTAÇ: The Heat of Our Greenhouse is from the Power of Our Waste
19. İZAYDAŞ: İZAYDAŞ HEPP, Green Sound to Nature
20. KALEKİM: Leave a Green Trace to Nature
21. KAYSERİ ŞEKER: Greenest Sugar: Kayseri Sugar
22. MİMSAN GRUP:  Bioelectricity for Zero Waste, Low Carbon
23. ORGANİK KİMYA: Pinch Project
24. ROTEKS: Development of Ecological Stone Washing Process
25. SEDAŞ: We Go Green
26. SHELL TÜRKİYE:  Stations Receiving their Power from the Sun at SHELL
27. TATMETAL ÇELİK: Our Children Draw Their Dreams for Low Carbon Tomorrows
28. TSKB: Innovative Sustainable Finance Solutions
29. TÜRK TELEKOM: Nature Friendly Green Turk Telekom Building
30. ZORLU ENERJİ: Success Transforming Clean Energy into Technology: ZES