Dear Fellow Stakeholders,
With 68 years of business experience, more than 60 companies and over 33,000 employees, as Zorlu Group, we currently export our products to 157 countries around the world. We are happy to be able to touch the lives of people in different geographies with our products and services that raise living standards.
We are guided in our work by the knowledge that the viability and success of our businesses depend on a comprehensive integration of sustainability across our core business areas, which comprise consumer electronics, home appliances, textile, energy, real estate development, and mining-metallurgy.
The United Nations Global Compact, which we signed in 2007 and which is congruent with Zorlu Holding’s corporate values, has been one of the most important milestones in the institutionalization of our sustainability approach. With the strength we derive from this, we decided to make sustainability a way of doing business in all our companies with our new strategy: The Smart Life 2030, which is based on the United Nations’ 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. We map global risk trends and opportunities that affect or are likely to affect our operations, and shape our strategies accordingly. In terms of sustainable growth and profitability, we aim to build a smarter future by combining the building blocks of sustainability with people, society, and the environment.
As a “Responsible Investment Holding,” we focus on creating high value for all our stakeholders and companies with regard to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Criteria. We manage our non-financial assets such as human resources, innovation and natural capital by investing in two areas: “people-oriented ecosystems” and “regenerative business models”. We aim to swiftly respond to complex global problems by establishing game-changing multi-stakeholder collaborations.
We aim to reach net-zero emissions by 2030 with our innovative business models, and we have plans to expand this target across our entire value chain by 2050. We aim to reduce our waste 50 percent by 2030 and to reach zero waste by 2050. We aim to recover 50 percent of the water used by 2030 and reach 100 percent by 2050. With the human-oriented ecosystems we will establish, we will allocate 1 percent of the Group’s EBITDA to works that contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals until 2030. A ’100 percent sustainable supply chain by 2030’ is also among our targets. Within this framework, we are accelerating efforts on areas including gender equality, employee volunteering, and intrapreneurship.
We ensure long-term profitable growth by sharing the value we produce. With an innovative and entrepreneurial approach that has been a part of our corporate culture since day one, we work on investments that have permanent and positive impact. We prioritize supporting the creativity and innovation capacity of our employees with our intrapreneurship program. We are realizing our dream of creating a better world with our people, innovative products and technologies we have developed, next-generation services, and our agile and dynamic management approach.
At Zorlu Group, we put people at the core of all efforts. Our understanding of sustainable growth and development, which adds value to people and society, and takes care of the environment and all living things on the planet, guides every step we take. We are improving our human resources processes as an equal opportunity employer, guided by a diversity-based and inclusive human resources approach. We are working to do our part for society with the awareness of the power of our influence.
We are managing the approach shaped around sustainability, which emanates from Zorlu Holding to our companies and brands, with a holistic perspective that takes into account the unique knowledge and experience accumulated at each of our companies. Vestel Elektronik and Vestel Beyaz Eşya are members of the UN Global Compact and both make important contributions to the institutionalization of this understanding. They continue to strongly support the goals we set in line with our Smart Life 2030 strategy on the way to achieving the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
In parallel with our holistic approach, both of our companies continue to make significant progress towards embracing sustainability. Vestel is also doing its part to help leave a better world to future generations with the environmental technologies it employs in its products. Vestel has a 360-degree sustainability approach that covers each area from products and services to factories and facilities, and from human resources to business practices. Sustainable production has become an indispensable company policy in Turkey just like it has around the world, especially for exporters like Vestel.
Vestel Elektronik Sanayi ve Ticaret AŞ was included in the BIST Sustainability Index, which consists of the shares of companies traded on Borsa Istanbul with high corporate sustainability performance, for the first time on November 2, 2015. Being listed in the BIST Sustainability Index for five consecutive periods, Vestel Elektronik is entitled to be included in the index for the sixth time as of December 1, 2020. Vestel Beyaz Eşya Sanayi ve Ticaret AŞ, a subsidiary of Vestel Elektronik, has been included in the BIST Sustainability Index on a voluntary basis since November 2016. Having continued to meet the criteria of the Sustainability Index, Vestel Beyaz Eşya will voluntarily take part in the Index for the fifth time during December 2020 - October 2021 period.
Every product we produce, every service we offer, every challenge we take on aims to contribute to a better life. For 68 years, our group has been working for Turkey with the guidance of these values and principles.
We act with a responsible and sustainable corporate approach based on our responsibility to our stakeholders and the strength we derive from them; aim to create permanent value for our country and each life we touch; and strive to provide maximum benefit to the ecosystem and environment we live in today and in the future.
Yours faithfully,
Ahmet Nazif Zorlu
Chairman of the Board