Sütaş Publishes Sustainability Report

Sütaş Publishes Sustainability Report

Operating with an integrated business model called "Farm to Table," Sütaş has shared its 2020 Sustainability Report with the public, which includes results from its efforts in the impact areas of "individual, society and environment" as well as its 2025 targets.

Through its integrated business model spanning from plant production to fertilizer and energy production, Sütaş ensures the naturalness, taste and nutritional values of its products. The integrated facilities created through this model contribute significantly to regional development through the economic and social impacts they generate in their respective regions. Aiming to recover the natural resources it uses, Sütaş meets its energy needs with renewable energy produced from farm manure and organic waste.

It contributes to regenerative farming practices through the organic and organomineral fertilizers it produces. Sütaş represents the strongest example in Turkey of the "European Union Green Deal – Farm to Fork" strategy, which envisions ensuring sustainability throughout the entire food chain.

Duygu Yılmaz, Chair of Sütaş Sustainability Committee commented on the matter: "As Sütaş, we believe that solving global challenges such as the rapid depletion and pollution of natural resources, climate change and food security is possible only when states, societies, companies and individuals act together. We are convinced that companies can make significant contributions by making sustainability an integral part of their corporate culture and business practices and extending it to all stakeholders."

With this responsibility, while working to spread the goodness and abundance of milk, through our sustainability-based "Farm to Table" integrated model and core business strategies, we achieve results that naturally make significant contributions to "individual health and happiness," "community development and welfare" and "environmental sustainability." We are pleased to share with the public the results regarding our 2020 sustainability targets and the targets we have set for 2025, Sütaş's 50th anniversary year," he said.

Sütaş operates with the mission of providing consumers with milk products that improve their quality of life, promote health and happiness, and are natural and flavorful. In order to fulfill this mission, it integrates, monitors and supervises all production processes through the "Farm to Table" integrated business model it has created. It ensures that its cattle are fed healthy forage crops and natural feed produced at its own facilities, thereby securing product reliability and naturalness by obtaining high-quality, nutrient-rich milk from healthy cattle. Through its facilities located throughout Turkey, Sütaş delivers its products to consumers quickly while preserving their freshness and naturalness.

Emphasizing the critical importance of well-maintained, healthy animals in terms of raw milk quality, product safety assurance and productivity, Duygu Yılmaz stated: "At our farms, we continue our practices within the scope of EU animal welfare legislation. All our farms hold 'Disease-Free and EU-Approved Facility Certificates.' By 2025, we are committed to closely monitoring and implementing new regulations within the scope of the EU's Green Deal Farm to Fork Strategy." he said.

Planning to introduce new products in the coming period, Sütaş aims to share more content on its packaging that informs and raises consumer awareness about the nutritional value and safety of its products.

Sütaş's "Farm to Table" business model; through its socio-economic impact and inclusivity, has the characteristics of a "Regional Development Model." Sütaş's investment in the Bingöl Integrated Facility, which will be its fourth integrated facility following those in Karacabey, Aksaray and Tire, is progressing rapidly.

According to the Bingöl Regional Impact Analysis Report prepared in 2020 and extensively examining the investment's effects on Bingöl and its surroundings, with the commencement of Sütaş's operations, besides a 40 percent increase in regional GDP, the region is expected to experience significant developments including changes in production technology, reduced unemployment, improved workforce quality, increased household incomes, slowing of outmigration, return of qualified population, balanced income distribution and accelerated social and cultural transformation.

Contributing to Sector Development

Sütaş also contributes to sector development by supporting the training of qualified workforce needed by the industry. Since 1998, Sütaş has provided free training to 19,251 producers, students and entrepreneurs at its Training Centers to enable healthier and more efficient dairy farming in the country, and aims to increase this number to 23,000 by 2025.

In the biogas facilities located at its integrated facilities, Duygu Yılmaz noted that they process farm manure and factory organic waste into renewable energy, stating: "The amount of energy produced in our biogas facilities has reached a level that covers 84 percent of the electricity needs of our production facilities. In 2020, the greenhouse gas prevented at our biogas facilities was 75 percent higher than the greenhouse gas emissions caused by our operational activities. We also successfully sold 41,536 tons of carbon, certified with the gold standard and reduced at our energy facilities, to voluntary carbon markets. By 2025, we aim to produce 100 percent of our electricity needs at our biogas facilities.

We will support this target with solar energy production. With solar energy panels we will install on the roofs of our farms and production facilities, we will increase our renewable energy production by 10 MW. "

Using biogas facility outputs as organic and organomineral fertilizer in feed crop production and contributing to improved soil organic structure, Sütaş aims to add 50,000 tons of organic matter to the soil annually by 2025. Noting that the importance of enriching soil in terms of organic matter content is increasingly recognized, Yılmaz stated that in the organic and organomineral fertilizer trials they conducted, they observed increases of up to 15 percent in product yield and up to 40 percent in soil organic matter content compared to comparable products.

Recovering Used Water

Noting that efficient water use is among both their responsibilities and priorities, Yılmaz continued: "At our facilities, we treat all the water we use and return it to nature. We began using drip irrigation systems in 2015 and have expanded them throughout our crop production activities. Through this, we achieved water savings of approximately 25-40 percent. By expanding the water efficiency work we have carried out so far and reaching 2025, we aim to increase water use efficiency in our factories, farms and offices by 15 percent," he said.

To access Sütaş's 5th Sustainability Report and details of its targets, click here

For detailed information regarding Sütaş's sustainability activities, click here