Working responsibly
for the future
Sustainability
SUSTAINABILITY
Working responsibly
for the future
Sustainability
SUSTAINABILITY
Continuing to work with a people-centered approach, Akçansa has been taking a stand against all kinds of discrimination for years and adopting internationally accepted corporate governance practices with a responsible management approach. With its Gender Equality policy, which supports a fair and inclusive working environment, our Company pioneers disseminating the importance of equality in its sector. Akçansa supports social development by listening to the needs of people in its regions of operation through social responsibility activities under the umbrella of ‘My Neighbourhood’ and focuses on providing social benefits through various training methods.
Occupational Health and Safety
Akçansa considers the issue of occupational health and safety as one of its most critical values. With its understanding of people-oriented management, our company takes and implements all kinds of measures to allow our employees to work peacefully and safely. Akçansa adopts the principles of maximizing the physical, mental, and social well-being of all of its stakeholders, especially its employees, who have the most significant share in the successes it has achieved, creating a healthy and safe working environment, preventing occupational accidents and diseases, establishing possible risks in business processes at the right time, and making continuous improvements.
At Akçansa, we have a separate OHS board consisting of employees, subcontractors, OHS experts, and senior management personnel to ensure the control and continuity of OHS culture development. The Akçansa OHS committee, which is managed with high-level inclusiveness and leadership, is responsible for meeting at least once a month to assess OHS risks and to ensure that the decisions taken are implemented in the most appropriate way in the working environment.
In line with Sabancı Holding and Heidelberg Materials, our company is taking firm steps forward with the actions it has determined to achieve the ‘0 Occupational Accident’ target within the 2030 Sustainability Goals. These actions include the transition to digitalization and virtual reality applications in Occupational Health and Safety training, introducing subcontractors to Occupational Health and Safety management systems and providing necessary support for certification processes, continuing theoretical and practical training on driving safety, as well as full compliance with legal requirements and digitalization studies on contractor/subcontractor management.
Employment
Akçansa shapes the future together with its employees serving in different positions. All applications we receive are evaluated with an objective point of view by taking into account equality of opportunity. Recruitment processes at Akçansa are carried out via digital platforms and practices. After the applications are examined, candidates are asked to complete various inventories to analyze their strengths and areas of development, and their adaptation to Akçansa culture and values is also considered.
Our company values youth employment and supports young people on their first journey in business life, with various projects being developed in this direction. Akçansa offers an authentic work and development experience from day one with ‘Let’s Shape the Future Together,’ a new generation young talent recruitment program developed as part of the ‘Future of Work’ project, and GençİZ, a long-term internship program for female students.
Diversity and Inclusion
One of our most important issues at Akçansa is to create a fair, equal, safe, and inclusive working environment for our employees and to nurture diversity in our work environment without discrimination based on language, religion, race, color, or gender. Our company contributes to increasing the ratio of female employees in the sector by supporting female employment, prioritizing gender equality, and carrying out activities within the company to raise awareness of this critical issue every year.
With the ‘Equality at Work’ project launched in 2018, our company has so far organized ‘Gender Equality’ workshops with the participation of 300 employees at its facilities in Istanbul, Çanakkale, and Samsun. At Akçansa, we took another step towards achieving our goal of increasing the proportion of female employees at the board and senior management levels by becoming a member of the ’30 Percent Club.’ In addition to its projects, our company has been a signatory of the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) since 2013 and the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) since 2014 to empower women in society, business, and economic life.
In 2021, we participated in the Global Compact ‘Target Gender Equality’ program and attended various capacity and performance-building workshops. At Akçansa, we also published our Gender Equality Manifesto in 2021.
Training and Development
At Akçansa, we work to create holistic health and development to ensure a better future and a purpose-oriented culture. New company employees undergo the ‘Akçansa Digital Academy’ platform’s orientation process to adapt to our business culture quickly. Our digital platform offers a wide range of training methods, from personal development to critical topics such as inclusion, diversity, and gender equality. The ‘Skill Matrix’ training system, which is planned individually, is applied to all employees in the plants to improve their technical competencies.
Our company makes use of the Project Marketplace process to increase inter-functional cooperation and realize projects in line with Akçansa’s strategies. In order to provide a healthy working environment for all employees where they feel valued and productive, we employ the ‘Akçansa is by Your Side’ platform. While emphasizing the importance of physical and mental health with the ‘Akçansa Awareness Meetings,’ our company also organizes ‘Next+ seminars’ with expert speakers from different fields.
Corporate Social Responsibility and Volunteerism
While our company continues its social responsibility activities around the understanding of ‘being a good neighbor,’ it strives to ensure the well-being of our employees and society in line with the social dimension of the 2030 Sustainability Goals. Akçansa continues to work with the principle of providing sustainable support in various areas, from education to sports, culture, and arts.
My Neighbourhood Social Responsibility Project
Our company has been carrying out the ‘My Neighbourhood’ social responsibility project in cooperation with TOÇEV (Children’s Education Foundation Willing to Read Tüvana) since 2015.
In 2022, we organized training on ‘Waste and Recycling’ and ‘Peer Bullying Based on Gender Inequality’ for 1,000 students in primary and secondary schools in Ezine. The content of the training sessions consisted of games and psychodrama exercises with evaluations that increased students’ awareness of the importance of environmental sensitivity and gave children insights into which positive behaviors in peer relationships would be considered beneficial and which behaviors would be considered bullying. Within the project’s scope, educator psychologists worked with primary and secondary school students in groups of 10. In 2022, we trained a total of 2,630 students.
In 2023, our company carried out activities to help the children affected by the earthquake with My Neighbourhood Mobile Education Truck as part of the Sabancı Republic Day Campaign.
In addition to the psychological and social training provided by TOÇEV’s specialized psychologists to 1000 children aged 5-18 in April, special activities to support children’s mental and physical development were implemented, and the questions of those participating were answered. In addition to the preschool, school period, and high school psychoeducation content, the training, which included educational and developmental activities such as storytelling, nature pedagogy, and body percussion, was welcomed with great interest by the children.
Sabancı Republic Day Campaign
Sabancı Group carries out meaningful projects with the participation of its employees and their families within the scope of ‘Sabancı Republic Day Campaign’ in order to leave a viable future for nature, all living creatures, and new generations. Akçansa volunteers also take part in these activities.
Worthy of Goodness – From Us to Us for Our Children
Our company is committed to supporting the dreams of its employees’ children and helping them achieve their future aspirations. We have continued our ‘Worthy of Goodness – From Us to Us for Our Children’ talent and success scholarship since 2019. We aim to increase the number of scholarships in our program every year. In this context, we have started the 4th Term of 2022 – 2023 with a total of 26 scholarship recipients.
My Profession Your Choice
The first leg of the ‘My Profession, Your Choice’ project, initiated by Akçansa to support students choosing a profession to discover their talents and interests in the field of engineering, was held in Samsun in May 2022. While bringing 10th and 11th-grade students from Ladik Akpınar Science High School together with Akçansa engineers at our company’s Ladik Plant, we shared experiences to support students in discovering their talents and interests.
Ladik Glass Workshop
It is of great importance for Akçansa, which acts with the ‘Equality at Work’ vision to ensure women’s participation in production activities and create the opportunity to transform their labor into economic value. Our vocational activities for women continue with the ‘Ladik Glass Workshop’ project, where the wives of Ladik Factory employees and other Ladik-based housewives are trained in glass production, and their efforts are transformed into economic value.
