Dow Turkey attends 3rd Istanbul Carbon Summit

Dow Turkey, among the participants at the Istanbul Carbon Summit held for the third time by the Sustainable Production and Consumption Association (SÜT-D), also received the "Low Carbon Hero" award.

The Istanbul Carbon Summit, bringing together renowned senior government officials, academics and private sector representatives from Turkey and abroad in the fields of energy and climate change, took place on 14-15 April at the ITU Süleyman Demirel Cultural Center.

Dow Turkey participated among the attendees at the summit held for the third time by the Sustainable Production and Consumption Association (SÜT-D).

The SÜT-D, which aims to support those who have excellently achieved carbon management in production and consumption through the "Low Carbon Heroes Awards" and who are working towards a low-carbon economy, and to increase awareness of the subject in society, deemed Dow worthy of an award at the ceremony it organized.

"Thermoplastic Polyolefin Membranes" developed by Dow in cooperation with Multiplan Insulation Systems A.Ş., which serve as an alternative to bitumen and PVC-based roof covering materials commonly used in roof insulation, earned Dow the award.

Mustafa Öztürk, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization, presented the award to Mehmet Nazım Yavuz, Member of the Board of Management of Multiplan Insulation Systems A.Ş., a Dow customer, and Varun Thakur, Technical Sales and Project Development Manager of Dow Elastomers Turkey.

At the summit, which discussed topics such as how the Paris Climate Agreement decisions would be implemented in Turkey, climate finance, green growth recommendations for Turkey, energy efficiency and sustainability;

İhsan Necipoğlu, President of Dow Turkey and Central Asian Republics, spoke about Dow's contributions to sustainability and energy efficiency, explaining how they reduced their carbon footprint.

At the "Carbon Management and Industry" session, moderated by Prof. Dr. Filiz Karaosmanoğlu, Faculty Member at ITU and Vice President of SÜT-D, İhsan Necipoğlu was presented with a plaque for his contributions to the summit.

We will continue to reduce our carbon footprint with our 6,800-strong R&D team

İhsan Necipoğlu, explaining that Dow is one of the world's leading chemical companies that uses technology and science efficiently, said that as a company operating in the world for 119 years and in Turkey for 45 years, their biggest investments are in human resources.

Noting that they have 6,800 scientists and researchers, Necipoğlu emphasized that they spend 2 billion dollars per year on R&D and have great confidence in the solutions that will come from their scientists.

Expressing that they are working on solving the world's major problems in this direction, Necipoğlu said: "In the last 10 years, we can talk about 1 billion new population. Correspondingly, energy consumption has increased by 50 percent in the last 15 years. There is a 50 percent increase in water consumption.

Yet 35 percent of the world's population lives in areas with water scarcity. Meeting the food needs of 1 billion more new people is an issue. That is why we need to increase food efficiency and agricultural productivity, access new water sources and purify existing water.

While doing all this, we must keep the carbon footprint at the lowest level possible. This is not something a single company, university or government can do. These solutions require collaboration. We aim to advance this work together with our entire team and R&D" he said.

We will increase confidence in chemical technologies in the next 10 years

Explaining that in previous years they evaluated cost and functional usability when designing a product, Necipoğlu stated that they added sustainability alongside these two criteria. Describing that sustainability work is being pursued seriously, Necipoğlu said: "Our researchers are not currently designing products without these three characteristics.

When designing products, we look at entire value chains and measure the lifecycles. In doing so, we are trying to create a sustainability at a sustainable economic scale. We have reached the third leg of our journey so far.

Our first step between 1995 and 2005 targeted operational excellence and focused on our own population. By reducing resource use, waste and energy consumption, we achieved 5 billion dollars in savings.

In our second decade covering 2005-2015, we dealt with solving difficult problems and shared sustainable economy solutions with our customers, providing them with differentiation. In our third decade, the 2015-2025 period, we are aiming for thought leadership.

We have the goal of designing our value chains from the beginning and designing the future together with our researchers. We plan to increase reliability in chemical technology with our designed products. This is one of our priority plans" he said.

We will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 500,000 tons at the Brazil Olympics

Expressing that they aim to showcase all this work and philosophy at the Olympics, Necipoğlu emphasized that the Olympics is one of the world's largest showcases, and stressed that Dow is a low-carbon sponsor of the Olympics.

Saying that the target carbon emission reduction at the Sochi Olympics was aimed to be reduced to the equivalent of 360,000 tons of carbon dioxide, Necipoğlu said: "We started work in Russia.

We focused on industries such as infrastructure, agriculture and food. Working within the local industry alongside these industries, we both explained our philosophy and enabled the use of new Dow technologies. We reduced carbon dioxide emissions by the equivalent of 520,000 tons of carbon dioxide.

We far exceeded the target expected of us" he said. Noting that they are engaged in serious work for the Olympics to be held this summer in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, Necipoğlu said they are working on certain specialized technologies.

Mentioning that they plan to achieve significant savings by enabling the use of polyurethane-based panels, Necipoğlu expressed that they can achieve their targets for reducing 500,000 tons of carbon dioxide.

Food waste results in 2.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions

Drawing attention to their solutions for the food problem, one of the world's major issues, Necipoğlu pointed out that according to United Nations statistics, the total food production is 4 billion dollars and 1.3 billion tons of this amount is wasted.

Noting that 870 million people could be fed with just 25 percent savings in production, Necipoğlu recorded that this amount is important enough to address Africa's food crisis.

Expressing that food waste results in emissions equivalent to 2.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide, Necipoğlu said: "Good packaging performance increases and extends food life. At this point, we can say that flexible packaging comes into play. In the flexible packaging industry, waste reduction and emissions from 2.5 billion tons of waste are reduced.

At this point, we provide the raw material for packaging with high technology. When designing it, we also make a high contribution to the value chain. We provide 4 percent energy and 40 percent water savings.

We reduce packaging thickness and achieve savings from there. We benefit from fuel savings in transport. We work together with industry and manufacturing to enable recycling. While doing all this, we try to minimize the carbon footprint in the food industry" he said.