Kağan Ersoy
Ecosys Sustainability Services Consulting Ltd. Co.
Sustainable Development is an approach to development based on a balance between the environment, economy and society, and the continuity of the natural resources that make human activities possible, within the scope of realizing human development goals. These 17 goals are shaped around the core principles that are of critical importance for humanity and defined as the 5Ps (People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace, Partnership). The goals are aimed at ending poverty, protecting the environment, taking measures against the climate crisis, fair sharing of prosperity and peace.
In the Sustainable Development goal, the auditing system of a company’s work is made more clearly. The requested application titles are briefly as follows;
- Transparency
- Accountability
- Responsibility
- Being Fair
All titles include legal provisions.
Focusing on environmental needs rather than the current company’s own needs is among the most important criteria. There are basically three pillars in the field of sustainability. We can list them as economic, social and environmental. Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) is a framework for assessing risks and opportunities related to a company’s operational impact on environmental, social issues and corporate governance factors. ESG reporting results in a scoring. In addition, it provides Refinitiv ESG Controversies Score and ESG Combined Score. The ESG Controversies Score emerges in the event of negative news about the company in global media sources, such as being penalized in legal processes.
Declarations are taken as a basis, and it is expected that they are communicated through implementation and transparency. The situation of inconsistency between implementation results and statements is called Green Wash. Differences between the company’s declarations and reports and the resulting practices lead to serious legal problems and criminal practices.
In cases that enter the legal dimension, the penalties imposed for companies are made without leaving any room for choice even to the right of objection or rejection. For example; Volkswagen was fined more than 20 billion dollars when the deliberate software process in the exhaust emission output was detected in the software of the vehicles, and sanctions and other penalties are still ongoing. Again, as a national example, in Germany, Deutsche Bank was fined more than 1 billion Euros when it was found to be Green Washing.
The critical point for all businesses and producers is that the system is now increasingly rigidly implemented and has a holistic situation that transcends borders. The fact that the Republic of Turkiye is a party to the relevant agreements and that these agreements have been ratified by the Turkish Grand National Assembly means that we have assumed all responsibilities.
Sustainable Development and all relevant foreign and domestic laws and regulations must be examined in detail. In the first stage, the responsibilities of companies within their own business areas should be clarified. Accordingly, they should create the company’s bylaws and make appropriate revisions, if any. In the second stage, appropriate implementation and control systems and internal regulations of all units should be established, and arrangements should be completed in accordance with the system by evaluating the past process. In the third stage, it is important to ensure transparency and accountability of the management and production duo. In the fourth stage, production processes should be rehabilitated in line with the targets and/or work should be initiated to transition to new and green technologies.
During the completion of the stages, it is essential to establish a system that will ensure, regulate and supervise the legal binding of the entire systematic issue. If the system cannot be established and operated correctly from the beginning, it is inevitable that a company will face legal processes at some point with in the scope of “Sustainable Development” goals.
Unfortunately, in our country, Sustainable Development has not been understood correctly from the very beginning. The time that has passed has caused and continues to cause very erroneous or unrewarding transactions. The latest situation shows that many companies will experience troubled processes starting from 2025. For this reason, establishing and maintaining the stages in order and with a careful system is of great importance for companies to maintain their existence and reputation in the future.
The cement industry is one of the first and most affected sectors of this process. A significant part of the sector does not have sufficient information about the situations they will face between 2030 and 2050. The cement sector should definitely establish 2025-2030 and 2050 targets and inform the sector players in detail, while companies should definitely create a sustainability department. Currently, we see that companies in Turkiye that have grasped the situation have appointed directors in the field of sustainability and have started to appoint CEOs who are sensitive to sustainability. International companies started implementing these practices about 10 years ago.
It is necessary to establish a sustainability department, train appropriate personnel, and make investment plans and improvements accordingly. For the legal part of the work, joint work should be carried out with law firms, lawyers and consultancy firms specialized in Green Law and Arbitration.
In the process of Sustainable Development, the Cement sector is about to take the most dangerous turn in terms of law enforcement and criminal aspects. As Turkiye’s strongest sector in the world, it will be possible for the cement sector to exist with the same strength in 2050 and to maintain its international commercial power by managing the process correctly.