Turkcell Aims for a "Better World"

Turkcell Chairman of the Board Bülent Aksu evaluated the company's key initiatives in sustainability, social contribution and digitalization, and made statements on these topics. Pointing out that awareness of climate crisis and sustainability issues has increased worldwide, particularly with the pandemic, Bülent Aksu noted that the various natural disasters caused by climate crisis experienced globally and in Turkey over the past few years have made sustainability matters a high priority for the future of our world. Stating that 78 percent of society believes that large institutions also have a role to play in the fight against climate change, Aksu expressed the company's sustainability approach as follows: "We design the technologies we develop with a sense of responsibility toward nature, environment and society, and we develop all our business processes with a human and environment-focused corporate approach. Against climate change, we aim to transform our operations into a more environmentally friendly, more efficient and sustainable model by harnessing the power of technology. In this direction, we have targets to meet 100 percent of our electricity consumption from renewable sources by 2030 and to achieve net zero carbon by 2050."

Target to Generate Renewable Energy

Aksu stated that in line with this target, they particularly use renewable energy sources in their business processes and focus on process improvements that will increase energy efficiency and savings, and that they share all these sustainability efforts transparently in their Integrated Activity Report with all stakeholders and the public. Expressing that the expansion of these activities among stakeholders and the ecosystem is important in terms of total targets, Bülent Aksu said: "We continue our investments in this field with the aim of being not only a company that consumes renewable energy but also one that produces renewable energy. In this regard, I am pleased to note that in 2021, we met our entire electricity consumption from 100 percent renewable energy sources. With our total of 3 solar energy projects, we generated 1.6 million kWh of electricity from renewable sources in 2020. In 2021, we purchased the Izmir Karadağ Wind Energy Plant (RES). With this RES, which has a total installed capacity of 18 MW and production capacity of approximately 67.5 GWh per year, we can meet the electricity needs of 2,500 base stations as Turkcell. We continue our efforts to further increase the capacity of our Izmir Karadağ Wind Energy Plant in the coming period."

Green Credit for Sustainability

Emphasizing that Turkcell accepts its sustainability-focused 2030 and 2050 commitments not only as an environmental responsibility but as a corporate obligation, Aksu expressed satisfaction at seeing that the operator's consistent performance within these commitments also contributes positively to its work on 'sustainable financing'. Through an agreement signed with BNP Paribas last month, the operator increased the amount of its sustainability-indexed credit allocated in 2019 to EUR 70 million and updated its maturity to 5 years.