SUSTAINABILITY
GENERAL OVERVIEW
Sepiciler adopts Sustainable Development Goals identified by the United Nations. Sepiciler takes into account realisation of the aforementioned goals whilst determining its business practices and investments. “Green Deal” announced by the European Commission in 2019 aims for carbon neutrality by 2050. Similar to Turkey, 55% of exports of Sepiciler is made to Europe. In this context, we consider the “Green Deal”, which will change the way international trade is carried out and is even referred to as the “new industrial revolution” taking into account its global impact, as extremely important. Therefore, we closely follow the developments related to the goals set forth by the Green Deal and change and transform our business practices in line with the obligations on our part. As Sepiciler, we view sustainability as an integral part of our corporate management perspective and approach the matter in a holistic manner as follows.
Sepiciler;
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Approaches societal problems with awareness,
Treats individuals equally without discrimination on the basis of language, religion, race, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic situation or physical characteristics,
Respects women’s rights and gender equality,
Respects unionisation and collective bargaining rights,
Creates a working environment which is safe and respectful of human rights,
Aims to establish long term relationships with suppliers who invest in technology, research and development and human rights; manufacture in line with national and international standards relating to the environment and employee health and have a contemporary management perspective,
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Develops or transforms its business models and systems based upon the principle of sustainability,
Carries out activities and develops projects aimed at reducing the energy and other resources expended per unit or product without compromising product quality or quantity,
Uses clean technologies and makes environmentally friendly investments in line with its love and respect for the environment and nature,
Aims to be carbon neutral,
Filters wastewater in compliance with the regulations and follows technological developments,
Develops projects in cooperation with various organisations to transform excess production into added value, aims to be a zero-waste facility,
Makes plans for the future and does not refrain from making commitments,
Views sustainability as an indefinite project.
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Sustainable Business is an integral part of Sepici Integrated Management Systems and it has shaped its business flow according to these systems.
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Our progress in sustainability will be regularly updated and published on our website.
We are a company which has adopted Sustainable Business as a corporate culture since our incorporation and has been a trailblazer in environmental, social and management matters in its business practices and has been regularly publishing this work since 2021. Sepici has been a member of LWG (Leather Working Group) which is the leading management system of the leather sector in the international arena since 2017. In addition to this management system which is required by the major brands of the global automotive and textile industry for the leather procured by them, we have been inspected since 2018 in terms of energy management, environmental management, management of chemicals, management of raw materials and internal order. Sepici was the first company in the Turkish leather industry to be a member of LWG and received a Bronze Certificate in 2018 and a Gold Certificate in 2020 amongst Turkish Tanneries. In his context, our work on sustainability has been ongoing since 2017 in a regular manner. In February 2022, our company has participated in the most detailed “life cycle assessment study” carried out to date with respect to leather. It is one of the 40 tanneries which have participated in these studies globally. Sepiciler Sustainability Committee was established in 2020 and reports directly to the Board of Directors. Increasing sustainability performance in environmental, social and management areas, developing strategies, determining targets, monitoring current developments is amongst the main responsibilities of the Sustainability Committee. Business practices have been included in the Integrated Management Systems to achieve materialisation of the projects and carrying out of studies in an organised manner. The Sustainability Committee is chaired by the Chairman of the Board of Directors. It consists of a manager and participating members from the main departments of the company. The Sustainability Committee regularly reports on the sustainability activities of the Company quarterly and ensures that its up to date version is posted on the company social media accounts and website.
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From Past to Present
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Since its establishment, Sepiciler has always prioritized respect for the environment and nature in its production processes, has developed projects and made investments in this regard. It has always seen production as a whole and evaluated it far beyond "just trade", has adopted the principle of providing added value at every stage of its activities, and has accomplished successful jobs that will be pioneers not only in its field of expertise but also in every sector.
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2001-2003 Oil Extraction from Fleshing Wastes:
In this project, which was carried out through Tübitak and TTGV, the aim was to transform the fleshing wastes generated in the beamhouse processes into a value-added product by appropriate processes. Tallow which is a value-added product was obtained from fleshing wastes with the flottweg machine and its sale was carried out.
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2011-2015 Evaluation of Sewage Sludge as Compost:
With this project carried out within the scope of University/Industry cooperation, the sludge of the treatment plant was dried to a certain extent and turned into compost with the recipe created by the university. This compost was used as a soil-improving material with high organic value.
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2014 Environmentally Friendly Chrome Tanning Technology:
In this project, which was developed together with TTGV and the University, an environmentally friendly tanning method with a high PH value was developed by using less acid and salt instead of the classical chrome tanning technology. This environmentally friendly method is still being used in our production processes.
OUR SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGY
DEVELOPMENT AND OUR PRIORITIES
We Are Reducing Our Carbon Footprint
Our investments into renewable energy sources, new production models and technology continue at full speed with the aim of reducing our carbon footprint. Our goals are fighting climate change, using resources efficiently and minimising environmental impact.
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Solar Energy Power Plant / Göllüce-Ä°zmir
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In 2015, 6 Mw Solar Energy Power Plant was installed on our nonarable land. Our Solar Energy Power Plant produces 10,1 Gw electrical energy in total, which corresponds to 3-fold the energy consumed at our facilities.
Roof Solar Energy Power Plant/ Çaybaşı-Ä°zmir
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With this project, the foundations of which were built in 2021, Solar Energy Power Plant will be built on the entire 25.000sqm roof of our facility. With this installment planned for 2022, all the electricity consumed at the facility will be produced. With this Project Sepici will turn to completely green renewable energy in electricity consumption.
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IREC Certificate (International Renewable Energy Certificate)
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Sepici has been purchasing all the electricity it uses from renewable energy sources with an IREC Certificate since 2021. With our IREC Certificate, we have reduced our carbon emissions from electric consumption to zero.
Energy Efficiency Project
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With the energy efficiency project implemented in partnership with Siemens Turkey, all the hot water, steam and condensate lines of the entire facility have been replaced by new technology and systems. Blowers, compressors, pumps and redial fans have been revised and those which no longer functioned efficiently have been replaced. With this Project, electricity consumption was reduced by 18 % and natural gas conspumtions were reduced by 40% respectively, and annual carbon emissions were reduced by 1145 tons. Moreover, with the establishment of the heat recovery system, all the lost heat was recovered. Other additional benefits which are significant, and which were not taken into consideration in the energy efficiency calculation in the project were a 25% reduction in maintenance costs, production processes becoming shorter with the technology renewal and an increase in the quality of production. In 2022 we will start the second phase of the energy efficiency project.
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Modernisation of Production Technologies and R&D Projects
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With the new machinery investments made in 2021, on one hand the production quality has been increased but on the other hand chemical and water consumption consumed per sqm has been decreased owing to new technologies. Therewithal, as a result of the R&D studies carried out specifically for some articles, water consumption decreased 60 tons per month. Again, with R&D studies, we have succeeded in increasing the capacity by 60% by using the same amount of chemicals in some articles. In 2022 we will continue to invest in new technologies and R&D studies to reduce our chemical and water consumption.
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Energy Monitoring System
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Consumption which cannot be measured cannot be controlled. With this in mind, the energy monitoring system “Desigo CC Upper Integration Software and Navigator Cloud-Based” was set up in 2021. We will be monitoring and recording our consumption per division and in some cases per process with 12 natural gas meter, 12 electricity meter, 9 water meter and 2 steam meter. With this system, it has become possible to monitor, record and carry out a statistical analysis over all consumption.
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We Give Back to Nature
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We aim to raise awareness among consumers, develop solutions focused on innovation, reduce our environmental impact and be of benefit to nature.
EcoTan Bio-Circular Leather
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We are proud to have developed the first Bio-circular leather project which turns into natural fertiliser together with SilvaTeam which is one of the largest tannin producers in the industry. With this project partnership which has become meaningful with Sepici’s know how of 91 years and the fact that it is one of the few vegetable leather producers in the world, a new tanning method which is totally natural, clean and which does not contain metal, aldehyde and hazardous substances was developed. With this method, for the first time in the world, we have produced leather that is not only biologically degradable but also transforms into organic fertiliser after being subject to hydrolysation procedure. R&D studies of this leather have been completed and we have begun shipping the finished products in January 2022. Certification process of leather which will be subject to tests has begun as of January 2022. https://ecotanleather.com/
Additionally, a new FOC (free of chrome) leather swatch has been created in 2021 and marketing activities of this leather which is highly bio- degradable was carried out in the second half of the year. The percentage of sales of the aforementioned leather within total domestic sales was 14%. Marketing activities for our environmentally friendly and innovative products will continue in 2022 to also include export.
We Give Back to Nature
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We know that our future depends on protecting nature. Forestation is one of the most effective methods in reducing carbon emissions which is one of the main reasons of global climate crisis as well as being the strongest means in the fight to attain balance in nature. With this in mind, we cooperate with foundations all around our country to plant trees. We have planted 1,000 trees annually since 2005. In addition to the 15,000 trees planted to date, we aim to plant 10,000 more trees until 2030 reaching 25,000 trees in total. In 2021, we have planted 1,000 trees through Ä°z DoÄŸa which is affiliated to the Ä°zmir Metropolitan Municipality.
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Leather is Nature Friendly
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We are happy to be a member of the Leather Naturally platform to talk about and promote leather. Leather which has been indispensable to humans in various areas since ancient history is a sustainable, recyclable, multi-faceted, repairable, long-lasting, and natural by-product. We are acting with a sense of responsibility in this matter and consider it a duty to raise awareness and inform consumers regarding the benefits of leather. https://leathernaturally.org/
We Focus on Water and Recycling
We aim to fight climate change and water shortage, reducing water footprint and using natural resources in the most efficient manner.
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Academia-Industry Cooperation Projects
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We are aware that sustainable growth should be a new standard for global industry. Therefore, we have begun a new cooperation with a local university in 2021 to develop “waste to wealth” projects. With our projects entitled “transformation of cinto value added products, transformation of wastewater treatment sludge into a value-added product, reducing the usage of chemicals in wastewater treatment facility, using wastewater treatment facility water in production”, we are making swift progress in becoming a “zero waste” production facility. We have renewed our agreement with the University for 2022 and we will resume our work from where we left off.
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Water Footprint
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With the energy monitoring system we set up in 2021, we have commenced our R&D work regarding water usage in our production, based upon our water consumption which we are able to observe even on a process basis. Besides by replacing all the hot water, steam and condensate lines of the entire facility by new technology and systems, we have been able to recover 1000 tons of lost water per month. With the declaration that 2022 has been declared as the water year, we are aiming to materialise our projects in relation to reduction of our water usage, storage, and recovery of rainwater
For a Greener and Cleaner World
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Waste that is directly disposed to landfill causes 25 times more global warming than carbon dioxide due to accumulated methane gas. Sepiciler sorts its office waste within the scope of the Turkish Zero Waste Programme. Excess leather from production is collected in separate storage areas and sent to relevant firms either in Turkey or abroad to be transformed into value added products.
Social Domains and Governance
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In accordance with our corporate culture mixed with our 91-year history, our priority is to always create an equal, safe and fair working environment for all our employees. Our aim with this approach is to improve our systems by examining global models and create a happy employee experience for all Sepici family in a people-oriented organisation centred around United Nations’ sustainability goals.
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UN Global Compact Türkiye
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Global Compact Turkey, which is the local network of UN Global Compact, is a development, sharing and cooperation platform for sustainable development of Turkey with numerous stakeholders including companies taking responsibility for sustainable development as well as nongovernmental organisations, universities, and municipalities. 10 principles of this platform cover basic responsibilities of the business world in human rights, employment standards, environment and fighting corruption. These principles are based upon UN Declarations which are globally accepted. UN Global Compact participants base their business practices on these 10 principles, make commitments and prepare reports. Sepiciler is a UN Global Company participant.
Intertek Equality for Women at Work Certificate
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We work towards eliminating discrimination against women in the business world, providing equal rights and opportunities for women and acceptance of gender equality and we develop our business models with this approach. Based on this, we are being inspected by an independent and impartial party. We aim to ensure the sustainability of and continuously improve our work with our Intertek Equality for Women At Work Certificate. We will be inspected by Intertek in March 2022 and obtain our Equality for Women at Work Certificate.
Sepiciler Womens’ Club
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We have set up Sepiciler Womens’ Club within our Company to increase women’s employment, reduce female employee turnover, increase the competency of our female employees, increase the number of female managers, to hear the wishes and grievances of our female employees and develop practices to this end. We act with the aim of hearing the opinions of our co-workers and transform and improve our practices accordingly.
Integrated Management Systems
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Sepici is the only leather producer in Turkey which has materialised the Integrated Management System with ISO 45001, ISO 9001, ISO 14001 Certificates encompassing Work Health and Safety, Quality and Environmental Management Systems with its policies which always centre around people and the environment. Our integrated management system policies are published on our website.
We are Changing, Improving
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With the inspiration we take from the characteristics of “leather” which is our core business, we, as Sepiciler, aim to be a resilient and beneficial organisation which will continue to exist through generations. We are aware that we will only be able to succeed at this by valuing our human resources. With our Human Resources Transformation Programme which we started by centring on this philosophy, we take the first steps towards change and are excited about the projects we will put into effect.
OUR COMMITMENTS
We declare 2022 as the “water year”
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We will start in 2022 our “reducing water footprint” project the foundations of which were built in 2021. Within the scope of this project, in the first phase we aim to reduce water consumption in production processes by 20%. In the second phase, we plan to put into effect our “storage of rainwater” project.
In 2022, we state that people are at our core and build the foundation of Human Resources Transformation Programme.
We will plant 10,000 trees by 2030.
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In 2022, we will continue to invest in new generation Technologies and develop projects to save on chemicals, water and natural gas. Our goal is to reduce natural gas consumption by 5%.
With the new investments to be made in 2022, we aim to reduce the chemical consumption by 15% for specific machines.
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By 2025, Sepici will become the first “zero waste tannery” of Turkey.
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In 2022, we will generate all electricity to be consumed by our facility, build a roof solar energy station of 2,3 MW and continue to invest in renewable energy sources. Sepici will turn to completely green renewable energy in electricity consumption.
In 2022, within the scope of the academy-industry cooperation project, we will establish a greenhouse and living laboratory with a recipe to be developed using treatment sludge, production excesses and other ingredients. On one hand, we will develop a project for the "zero hunger" sustainable development goal of the United Nations, and on the other hand, we will be working to become a zero- waste factory.
Sepiciler Çaybaşı plant is moving forward towards becoming the first “carbon neutral tannery” of Turkey by the end of 2025.