European Green Deal Will Lead To Transformation In Many Aspects

We consider the European Green Deal as an initiative that will have a transformative effect on any country, industry, and stakeholder group.

Announced by the European Union (EU) as a new growth strategy and positioned at the centre of a healthy recovery even after the pandemic, the European Green Deal is a multi-dimensional initiative that covers the environmental, digitalization, and financing issues. We consider the European Green Deal as an initiative that will have a transformative effect on any country, industry, and stakeholder group through the regulations to be implemented in the next 5 to 10 years.

Legislative preparations expected in relevant areas of policy such as sustainable product and green finance initiative, increasing the energy efficiency of products, carbon border adjustment, and update of the Emission Trading System may affect our industry strongly. As an industry with high integration with EU value chains, our existing compliance with the Union’s regulations is worth mentioning. For example, the transition to the new energy label for televisions, refrigerators, washing machines, and dishwashers in our industry took place almost simultaneously with the EU as of March 2, 2021.

At Arçelik, we prioritize the issue of combating climate change in addition to our compliance with the environmental standards of the EU for products, and we work with “sustainable development” in mind by placing sustainability at the centre of our business strategies in all of our activities. In all of our operations from products to production, we focus on energy and water efficiency as well as circular economy, gradually reducing our carbon footprint.

As a company that has managed to be carbon neutral in global production, we are working hard to further improve our pioneering position in the field of sustainability. Also, as a company that focuses on sustainable development, creating value for people, and protecting nature in our activities with the awareness of our responsibility towards society and the environment, we closely monitor the developments in this field that has the potential to affect our competitiveness in the EU markets and implement important studies:

Our goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 in accordance with the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting the global temperature increase (far below 20C) was approved by Science Based Targets Initiative last year. In line with the 2030 targets, on a global scale, we aim to reduce Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions originating from our own operations and the energy we purchase by 30%, and Scope 3 emissions originating from the use of products by 15% compared to the base year of 2018.

We became a carbon-neutral company in the 2019-2020 period by balancing our greenhouse gas emissions in our global production activities. In Turkey, through the Energy-Efficient Refrigerators Carbon Finance Project, we achieved 305,407 tons of CO2 recovery between 2013-2018 without purchasing any carbon offset credits.

We also have pioneering works in the circular economy. In Turkey, we are the first and only company in its industry that has its own recycling facility. Since 2014, when we commissioned our Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) facilities, we have replaced the 1.3 million products consuming high energy that we have collected from the market regardless of the brand with new energy-efficient products, and we have achieved energy savings equivalent to the Daily electricity consumption of approximately 41 million households, in other words, the annual energy production of 52 wind turbines with 2.5 MW power.

CEO of Arçelik Hakan Bulgurlu