To us, protection of natural resources is one of our fundamental responsibilities, and we carry out our operations with minimum environmental impact. We promise to bring under control and constantly reduce direct environmental impacts associated with our activities, as well as indirect environmental impacts that emerge at any point of our value chain.

As per Tofaş Environment and Energy Policy, environmental issues are under the responsibility of the Sustainability Committee and Sustainability Working Committee, and the studies conducted are reported to the Board of Directors.

We think strengthening our management infrastructure is especially important when it comes to improving our environmental performance. Accordingly, we speed up our decision-making processes considering the economic impacts associated with environmental risks, and we allocate sources to manage environmental impacts within the scope of risk management. We attach great importance to raising awareness among our stakeholders and employees about the environment.

“We spent more than TRY 1.32 million for environmental management and investments, and organized environment training for 8572 man*hours in 2020.”

Green Purchasing

At the root of our green purchasing policy is our philosophy to spread our sustainability culture to our entire supply chain and to highlight products and services with minimized environmental impact. Our green purchasing policy aims at minimizing the environmental impacts stemming from the production processes of our suppliers and their services, improving their general environmental performance, and reducing environmental risks.

As part of our efforts, we provide suppliers from whom we purchase products to manufacture vehicles a list containing environmental issues. Guided by a due diligence logic, the list informs our suppliers about the consequences of their environmental impact (energy, water consumption), gives general information concerning environmental management system, and ask questions about management of environmental risks. Their replies help us calculate our environmental impact arising from the production of components of a car.

Our Green Purchasing program, launched in 2018, continued with improvement and development efforts made with our 7 suppliers selected from different sectors. We formulated action plans comprising of our suggestions for short-, medium-, and long-term methodic and technical development to improve their environmental and energy performance based on the field visits we paid to our pilot suppliers we selected with our technical experts responsible for the continuity and development of the production processes of our plant.

Among a total of 103 improvement actions that were being monitored, 76% were finalized by the end of 2020, and positive changes began to be observed in the environment and energy indicators of our pilot firms. While our program continues with our 7 suppliers in line with our action plans, we intend to roll it out to all of our direct material suppliers in the upcoming period.

With regards to procurement of services, we draw up specifications laying down environmental sensitivities intrinsic to each service item and identifying preference criteria. Thus, services are purchased only from suppliers meeting the specified criteria.

The objective is to reduce environmental impacts associated with the production, supply, and service processes falling under the scope of our value chain, and our suppliers in particular, improve general environmental performance, and reduce environmental risks; which will lead to a holistic supply chain involving economic and social aspects.

For more information on Environmental Management and Tofaş’s Environment and Energy Policy please visit tofas.com.tr/Surdurulebilirlik/Politikalar or see Tofaş Annual Report 2020 published interactively at ir.tofas.com.tr/2020.

Water Management

We are aware of the fact that due to global warming and frequent extreme weather events the climate crisis will create a major pressure on our water resources; therefore, our goal is to use water efficiently and reduce our water footprint. We are trying to manage our water and waste water processes in the best way possible to minimize our water consumption. With various practices we put into use, we are trying to find solutions to constantly reduce the amount of water we use. Furthermore, we periodically analyze our water resources to ensure their continuity and sustainability.

We make intensive use of well water in our production processes. Our water consumption fell from 1.073.626 m3 in 2018 to 929.882 m3 in 2019. Our water consumption per vehicle dropped from 3.55 m3 in 2018 to 3.33 m3 in 2019.

For our production activities, we mostly prefer well water. Our water consumption fell from 1.073.626 m3 in 2018 to 788.444 m3 in 2020. Our water consumption per vehicle dropped from 3.55 m3 in 2018 to 2.98 m3 in 2020.

 In line with our principle of responsible use of water resources, we make sure that fresh water is reused many times in various processes. For example, we continue to use the waste water created as a result of a production process to meet our need in another process.

“We recycled 60.57 million m3 of water in 2020.” 

In line with the Convention on Biological Diversity, which was signed by Turkey as well, we conduct periodical checks to detect potential risks and take required measures. We conduct environmental impact assessments and constantly monitor our biological impacts to avoid any adverse impact on the natural areas in our vicinity and on the creatures living there.

Since waste water has the potential of creating an adverse impact on biodiversity, we approach waste water management as a significant aspect of our responsible water management process. Therefore, we try to recycle the waste water created as a result of our operations as much as possible in our modern treatment facilities, while discharging remaining non-recyclable waste water to pre-determined receiving environment at loads that are below the limit values mentioned in water discharge permits.

“We discharged 510,000 m3 of waste water in 2020.” 

Management of Materials and Waste 

As stated in our Environment and Energy Policy, all kinds of waste disposal procedures mean loss of natural resources and raw material; therefore, we aim at minimizing the pollution associated with our processes and avoiding pollution at the source. We send all of our industrial wastes to cement sector as a source of raw material and energy, thus achieving our “zero waste disposal” goal thanks to this circular economy.

Our material and waste management activities focus on minimizing the amount of waste created, and reducing the use of materials in general, while increasing the use of recyclable materials. In addition to our own operations, we encourage our suppliers to reduce the quantity of materials they use.

The total amount of waste per vehicle was 3.06 kg in 2020. 

In line with our perception of sustainable production, we efficiently use natural resources by making 5R (refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle, recover) improvements in all production processes. 

We were awarded “Zero Waste Certificate” by the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization for our Zero Waste Management System we created in line with our understanding of sustainable environment management with the aim of avoiding pollution at source, preventing waste by using resources responsibly and efficiently, and finally separating wastes at source, collecting and recovering them.

Reduction of PlasticsA certain level of carbon emission is created while extracting raw materials and producing the synthetic plastics used in the automotive sector. Our plan is to reduce the amount of plastics (petroleum fraction) used, and create financial value. We use recycled raw materials especially when producing mud flaps, aesthetic engine hoods, and skid plates. Accordingly, within the scope of the studies on the use of recycled PP, CAE analyses were performed for thermal and functional tests, and virtual analyses were used in most of those tests. As part of our circular economy, interior trim and exterior trim practices are still being put into use.