Interview with Levent Gökçe, General Manager of İzocam

We conducted an engaging interview with İzocam General Manager Levent Gökçe. Gökçe shared important information about his company's projects and activities.

How did 2017 go for the sector and your company, and could you share your overall assessment?

Despite currency increases, Turkish Lira depreciation, pre-election uncertainty and instability in our export markets, we continued 2017 with sales exceeding our expectations. We will close this year with growth of approximately 20%. Thanks to our R&D efforts this year, in the summer months of 2017 we introduced a new product to the sector, "İzocam Partition Board," manufactured using recyclable materials for use in light partition walls. The "Craftsman-Friendly" İzocam Partition Board, which holds CE and EUCEB certificates, has proven its quality on the international stage. The Partition Board, which can be produced in different thicknesses, provides superior heat and sound insulation in partition walls; thanks to its non-combustible A1-class properties, it saves time in potential fire incidents. With its developed mechanical properties and lightweight design, it offers ease of application and provides various advantages in transport and storage.

On the export side, as a company that has provided solutions in over 100 countries to date and aims to export over 150 million dollars over the next 5 years, we continued our search for new markets this year. We particularly pursued market opportunities in Central Africa.

This year we supplied products for the Accra Kotoka Terminal Building in Ghana, with a capacity of 5 million passengers per year. For the Accra Kotoka International Airport expansion project, we supplied Foamboard, İzocamflex and Stone Wool Board. Our products were used for exterior wall insulation, roof insulation and electromechanical installations. Additionally, we continued to strengthen our position in markets such as Cyprus, Jordan and Lebanon. We maintained the pace of our promotional and training activities in these markets. The most important innovation for our sector this year was the "Regulation on Protection of Buildings Against Noise," which came into effect on 31 May. Noise and sound pollution, increasing day by day with urbanization and industrialization, strain people physically and mentally, reducing quality of life. One of the most ideal methods to protect against noise pollution is "insulation"… Through proper insulation applications using the right materials with adequate thickness, both heat losses and potential loss of life and property in the event of fire can be minimized. Thick insulation applications reduce sound transmission and prevent both external noise and noise from neighboring units or buildings from entering homes. The regulation specifies the minimum sound reduction index (Rw) that all types of wall and floor sections in non-industrial buildings must achieve.

What are your expectations for 2018?

We view 2018 as a year in which we will grow in both revenue and profitability. We believe that Turkish Lira depreciation will provide us with advantages in our export markets, bringing additional sales volumes. However, for 2018 and beyond, I can say that our most important priority is completing the investments we must make in products where our capacity is limited. We believe that the steps we take in 2018 will provide us with sustainable growth and competitive advantage. From a sector perspective, in a time when global warming is a major threat, I believe that energy-efficient buildings will hold an increasingly important place for both protecting our planet and the country's economy. Indeed, the outputs of "Turkey's nationally determined contribution (NDC) declared in accordance with UN Climate Change Framework Convention (UNFCCC) article 2 objectives, under decisions 1/CP.19 and 1.CP/20, and the planned policies for implementation" and the "National Energy Efficiency Action Plan" being prepared support this view... Particularly alongside the NDC, the requirement that newly constructed residential and service buildings be constructed in accordance with the Building Energy Performance Regulation as energy-efficient, the necessity of creating Energy Identity Certificates in buildings and reducing energy consumption over the years, and for reaching the targets included in the NDC, emphasis was placed on the importance of widespread adoption of green building and near-zero-energy building designs and minimizing energy needs.

To achieve these goals, next year innovative and sustainable approaches from insulation and design to implementation will occupy our agenda even more.

We expect new developments regarding BEP in the coming year. Along with current BEP, we foresee that in the next 10 years, energy efficiency measures and insulation levels will increase in existing buildings, providing significant contributions to the sector and our country. BEP is undoubtedly an extremely important step for our country. However, full implementation of all details and inspection mechanisms of BEP is of great importance. The areas that need to be developed in this regulation should be reviewed and completed as soon as possible. In 2018, we can also say that the effects of urban renewal, which has recently been on the construction sector's agenda, will continue. I consistently state at every platform that urban renewal is a major opportunity for energy efficiency. In this process, rigorous inspections must be applied to prevent the use of thin and low-quality insulation materials. Using thicker insulation materials increases proportional savings without raising other costs in the system. Urban renewal must be properly evaluated for our country to achieve a healthy environment. Restricting energy consumption more in buildings constructed during urban renewal will support Turkey's Climate Change National Action Plan and Energy Efficiency Strategy Document targets, similar to the EU's 2020 goals, and promote innovative applications. According to the Building Energy Performance directives published by the European Parliament, from 31 December 2020 all new buildings will be near-zero-energy buildings. It is important that our country, without further delay, shapes its future in an energy-efficient manner with such innovative approaches. Urban renewal may come more to the fore next year in this context.