We define our sustainability management as a basic philosophy for the management of our employees as well as all of our stakeholders in our sphere, by taking into consideration economic, environmental and social values. We work to disseminate the sustainability culture and awareness to all our processes and stakeholders, with a lifelong perspective. Within our risk-based management model, we improve our current studies according to evaluations based on various factors, including environmental and social values, which are the main components of sustainability.

At Tofaş, sustainability is adopted as a management philosophy by the entire board of directors, including the CEO. The management of our sustainability strategy determined by the “Sustainability Committee” under the leadership of the senior management is under the responsibility of the “Early Risk Detection and Risk Management Committee”.

In the risk-based working model, action plans are prepared based on the risks and opportunities identified in the field by all our units and relevant stakeholders, and progress is followed by risk owners. The Risk Management Committee reports all works and practices carried out within this context to the Corporate Governance Committee, and if deemed necessary, to the Board of Directors. This ensures the flow of information on our sustainability activities to the Board of Directors. The sustainability is always on the agenda of the Board of Directors and evaluated by the members of the Board of Directors. Apart from this information flow, the Sustainability Team coordinates the activities, in which the senior management including the CEO is involved and which are carried out by the relevant directorates and units, and reports to the respective Board Committees.

Sustainability is managed within the framework of the “Sustainability Policy of Tofaş”, which includes the general principles of our sustainability approach. Our sustainability strategies are determined and followed by the Tofaş Sustainability Committee. The Sustainability Working Group is responsible for reporting the performance results of sustainability management through the sustainability report.

You can access Tofaş’s Corporate Sustainability Policy at tofas.com.tr/en/Sustainability/Policies  or in the Tofaş Annual Report 2019 which is published interactively at ir.tofas.com.tr/2019/en/

Sustainability Priorities

We determine our sustainability priorities by involving our stakeholders, with which our interaction is higher and on which our influence is higher; and through the targets we set, we continue to witness in our business processes the positive impact of our management approach about sustainability priorities.

We created a wide universe of subjects in line with the factors covered in the GRI standard, and by considering the various subjects that are closely related to the automotive sector. When determining our sustainability priorities, we took into consideration Sustainable Development Goals, which are recognized as global goals that address environmental, social and economic problems.

We carried out two separate questionnaire studies to ensure the participation of internal and external stakeholders in decision-making mechanisms. While the first of these questionnaires was carried out with the participation of the company’s executives, the second one was carried out with our stakeholder groups, including suppliers and non-governmental organizations. In this way, the universe of subjects was finalized. 

Within the scope of the study to determine the sustainability priorities, the universe of subjects consisting of 40 subjects and 17 Sustainable Development Goals was evaluated by senior and medium level managers of Tofaş. Subsequently, the studies were consolidated and the relevance of these subjects and goals with the operations of Tofaş was evaluated. In the last stage, priorities were determined by considering both the level of impact of Tofaş’s operations on these subjects and the expectation of our stakeholders. As a result of this evaluation made in 2017, we decided to manage our priorities through long-term targets, in line with the target year of 2030 set for Sustainable Development Goals; and we are monitoring our progress on related topics annually and are updating our action plans in line with the new knowledge and experience we gain.

The below table, which is the result of all these studies, shows Tofaş’s main production-related processes that are associated with the priority subjects determined as a result of the survey carried out with our stakeholders. Our goal here is to update the priorities of the company based on a lifelong perspective, and accordingly create new action plans, through which we will create value together with all of our stakeholders.