DEAR STAKEHOLDERS,
The Covid-19 pandemic, which was declared to be a “Pandemic” by the World Health Organization (WHO) at the beginning of 2020, raised many questions and the number of people who lost their lives due to the pandemic reached up to millions within a short time. While governments closed their borders and took additional strict measures to prevent the spread of this historical pandemic, the whole world suffered damaging and possibly long-lasting impacts on social life, health services, production, supply chain, employment, and economy. As Park Cam, we initiated our efforts to fight against the outbreak days before the Covid-19 was recognized as a pandemic particularly in order to protect the health of our employees. In line with the instructions by national and international authorities, particularly the Turkish Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization, we implemented the necessary measures immediately.
We also supported all our business partners, including our suppliers and customers, in their fight against the pandemic. In the days following this difficult time, we created safe working plans with our employees from who we received the greatest support. During the pandemic, we managed to continue our production in line with our “Zero Accidents and Zero Occupational Diseases” goal, which we never compromised, by maintaining our business relationship with our valuable employees without dismissal or forced unpaid leaves due to the pandemic.
The Covid-19 pandemic, which deeply affected all the dimensions of life, has shown that human behaviour needs a change, sustainability is of great importance for companies, the difficulties of coping with global crises both individually and GENERAL MANAGER’S MESSAGE organizationally, and impossibility of overcoming these with short-term and weak strategies. I believe that we achieved resilience throughout the pandemic owing to the efforts we have been showing since the day of foundation for the health and well-being of our employees as well as the care we attach to our relations with our business partners and our corporate values embraced more day by day. I also think that we owe this performance to the risk management and control mechanisms we established with a proactive and reactive approach.
Undoubtedly, the most challenging aspect was the “uncertainties” we experienced at every stage of the pandemic. Considering that uncertainties push individuals, companies and societies out of their comfort zones, it is safe to say that uncertainties create opportunities for transformation. From this point of view, the uncertainty we experienced forced our company to become more flexible and agile and, in a sense, to initiate a transformation. As Park Cam, I think that the concept of “common future” has been etched in our minds in this process. In 2021, we took steps to combine the works that have been carried out with the joint efforts of various departments and serve sustainability under a single roof, so that we can make them more effective with increasing responsibility for the future.
We have laid the foundations of our sustainability approach in order to demonstrate our economic, environmental, social and governance performance with a holistic approach, better systematize our responsible management approach and strengthen our compliance with national and international standards. Under the leadership of the established Sustainability Committee, we have initiated efforts to integrate sustainability into our business processes with the consistent activities of our Sustainability Working Group and the participation of all the stakeholders, in particular, our employees. In line with the Sustainability Policy created to this end, we have made a commitment to serve sustainable development.
2021 was the year Park Cam took steps for growth with the ninth anniversary left behind in container glass production. In this sense, we have started the construction of a new furnace which will increase the production capacity by 50% and is expected to come into operation in 2023. While performing the indirect environmental and social impact assessment of our investments, we also aim to reduce resource consumption as much as possible by considering the efficiency of our operations within the scope of environmental and energy management. With each new investment, we experience the excitement of growth while also implementing various and new sustainable practices to reduce the footprint we leave in the world.
As of the first furnace investment, Park Cam always preferred the operational costs to the investment costs so as to ensure energy efficiency and offer a more ergonomic and comfortable working environment for the employees. For the new investment projects, Park Cam continues to carry out innovative and pioneering activities in the industry without compromising this approach. While investing primarily in energy efficiency and low-carbon technologies at the beginning, we try to maintain and develop a system open to the ideas and suggestions of employees and allows development and innovation, and desire to preserve and develop the innovation culture we created over the years.
Throughout our history which almost makes a decade, our sense of responsibility and respect towards people and the environment has gotten stronger every day. In this respect, Park Cam proves success in external and customer audits under ISO 9001 Quality Management System, ISO 50001 Energy Management System, ISO 14001 Environmental Management System, ISO 45001 Occupational Health and Safety Management System, ISO 22000 Food Safety Management System and BRCGS Packaging Materials standards that are effectively implemented in the company for a long time. Paying utmost attention to respect human and employee rights, embraces the culture of ethics and compliance, adopt fair employment practices, and ensure employee loyalty and satisfaction, Park Cam provides audited and transparent information on ethical approaches to the Sedex (Supplier Ethical Data Exchange) platform database since 2017. Under the name of SMETA (Sedex Members Ethical Trade Audit), regular audits are conducted to Park Cam so as to ensure that the company is more visible in the supply chain, has reinforced relations with the stakeholders and receives approval of its ethical compliance with the audit methodology based on the Ethical Trade Law, local laws and international working rules. To this end, the company also shares its performance with third parties as part of social compliance. Regarding employee satisfaction and loyalty, Park Cam creates activities every year for the professional and personal development of our employees, our biggest stakeholders, with training programs shaped in line with the needs.
In addition to the value provided to the society with social responsibility and volunteering projects, we also take care to keep the sense of belonging and motivation of the employees at the highest level. As Park Cam, we strive to contribute to the development and welfare of not only our employees, but also the society we live in. In this sense, we consider the needs and expectations of the local community.
Accordingly, we plan to implement more systematic and high valueadded social responsibility projects with the Social Responsibility Board we established in 2021. We believe that we must eliminate various risks and social inequalities such as climate crisis, water security, depletion of natural resources and loss of biodiversity for a sustainable world. In the transition to a low carbon economy, we, Park Cam, have started activities as of the end of 2021 to evaluate our environmental impact so that we can fulfil our duty and to transparently report our investment activities and performance in this direction so that we can keep our negative impacts at a minimum. Based on our present performance, we share our approach regarding the fight against climate change and water safety to the attention of all our stakeholders by transparently publishing the first Sustainability Report so as to share with the stakeholders the effect we cause to the whole value chain including the employees, society and environment and by answering the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) Climate Change and Water Security Programs. I have no doubt that we, as Park Cam will fulfil the duty in the sustainability journey and that the steps taken will get firmer with the sustainability reporting studies initiated in 2021. I am very pleased to share our first sustainability report which shows that we accept sustainability as part of doing business when performing our activities with all the stakeholders, in particular, our employees, customers and business partners. I would like to express my gratitude to our valuable employees, who are the source of our success as they improve our performance every day, and all the stakeholders, who create common value in cooperation with us, for their support to the work we carry out as part of our sustainability vision.
SEMİH ÖZBAY
GENERAL MANAGER
MEMBER OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS