Ak Gıda Aims to Reduce Carbon Emissions

Ak Gıda Aims to Cut Carbon Emissions Speaking at the Sustainable Food Summit, Levent Özcan, Supply Chain Director at Ak Gıda - İçim Dairy, said that Ak Gıda, which operates an extensive sales and distribution network, has implemented innovative projects to reduce carbon emissions in its logistics operations, including return vehicle optimization, high-capacity trailers, double-deck truck loading, rail shipments, and increased pallet weights. Levent Özcan, sharing examples of solutions that reduce carbon footprint, made the following comments on the subject: "Previously, 65 percent of our product deliveries were made by trucks returning empty. Now we use these return trips to transport packaging supplier materials to our factories. This way, we have increased our return vehicle utilization rates to above 70 percent. We also had the first high-capacity trailers in Turkey produced, capable of transporting 29 tons of raw milk, and we shared this innovation with the entire sector. We strongly believe in the importance of collaborating with all stakeholders to reduce carbon emissions."   Levent Özcan, Supply Chain Director at Ak Gıda - İçim Dairy, which is among the supporters of the 8th Sustainable Food Summit, described the projects they have implemented to reduce carbon emissions in their logistics operations. Levent Özcan, who manages an extensive distribution network for Ak Gıda - İçim Dairy, Turkey's largest dairy and dairy products producer and sector leader with 6 factories, stated that they continuously develop projects to protect the environment while managing this wide distribution network. He provided examples of practices including return vehicle optimization, high-capacity trailers, double-deck truck loading, rail shipment of UHT milk, and increased pallet weights. Levent Özcan stated: "Through the projects we launched last year, we worked on how much we could reduce carbon emissions in both raw milk and finished product logistics, and we set a target to reduce carbon emissions in our logistics operations by 10 percent. Those were days when we also experienced difficulties in transportation due to the pandemic. Nevertheless, with the solutions we developed, we managed to ensure uninterrupted delivery of our milk and dairy products to consumers during the pandemic while reducing our carbon footprint. So far, we have achieved 9 percent of our target. This shows that we will meet our year-end target."

The Importance of Sectoral Collaboration in Reducing Carbon Footprint

Levent Özcan, explaining that they developed a digital application where milk quantity data collected at milk collection points is entered into the system and routes can be adjusted based on vehicle utilization rates determined by this data, thereby achieving maximum efficiency, continued as follows: "We also tracked the volumes of our trucks that make finished product deliveries. The vehicles were returning 65 percent empty. At this point, we developed a project with our packaging suppliers and became their carrier by transporting the packaging they produce for us on return trips."   Emphasizing that alternative transportation methods are very effective in reducing carbon emissions, Levent Özcan noted that they conducted UHT milk shipments by rail for the first time and said they are gaining experience in this area every day. Levent Özcan explained that raw milk is transported in Turkey using trucks with 23-ton capacity, and that Ak Gıda, together with its logistics solution partner, developed high-capacity trailers capable of transporting 29 tons of raw milk, the highest-capacity trailers in Turkey and Europe. "High-capacity trailers can be used by all companies in the dairy sector. Because as a company, we believe in the importance of all stakeholders acting together in reducing our carbon footprint. We attach great importance to sharing best practice examples not only in logistics but in all areas with the entire sector and all stakeholders," he concluded.