Emission Management

Climate change is one of the most significant threats of our times. At Türk Telekom we are aware of our responsibility to address this global issue and are currently taking substantial measures to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. We create innovative and comprehensive solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which are one of the primary contributors to climate change. We persist in our efforts to protect our future while building a sustainable world. Emission management and reduction are material topics for our organisation. As a result, we incorporate the perspectives of our stakeholders regarding emissions while preparing our sustainability and integrated reports and take relevant actions based on these opinions.

At the same time, we contribute to reducing carbon emissions through our Company’s operations. Digitalisation reduces physical travel and other needs, thus reducing the carbon footprint. On the other hand, energy consumption of data centres and network infrastructure causes greenhouse gas emissions. These emissions can accelerate climate change,causing environmental destruction and negatively impacting people. The increase in natural disasters and forced migration of people can also be cited as examples. At Türk Telekom, we are working to reduce these negative impacts by investing in renewable energy sources and increasing energy efficiency.

Furthermore, improper management of electronic waste (e-waste) can lead to severe negative impacts on environmental pollution and human health. E-waste can contain toxic substances and, when improperly managed, can damage soil, water, and air quality. At Türk Telekom, we take comprehensive measures against such negative impacts by adopting sustainable waste management practices and increasing energy efficiency. Türk Telekom takes a holistic approach to managing greenhouse gas emissions and other major air pollutants.

We address this issue in detail in our Sustainability Policy and Integrated Management System Policy. We comply with all national and international environmental regulations and other obligations that we are subject to. We aim to continuously improve our environmental performance by measuring the significant environmental impacts arising from our operations. To date, we have not been penalised for failure to comply with environmental legal obligations.

Emission Reduction Targets and Strategies

We implement numerous measures to manage our emissions. The initial step is to generate and validate the carbon inventory annually. In 2011, we initiated the process of calculating our carbon inventory. One of the most critical steps of moving towards a broader emission management was to start calculating each of the Scope 1, 2, and 3 categories of our carbon inventory per the GHG protocol at the Group level in 2023. This calculation, for the first time encompassed all companies within the Türk Telekom Group and was comprehensive in all respects. In this way, we aim to develop carbon reduction strategies at the scale of Türk Telekom Group. All calculations are verified by a 3rd party independent company. We made our commitment to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), declaring to reduce our emissions and increase our contribution to environmental sustainability. We effectively report our emissions through steps such as creating and monitoring our carbon inventory, answering climate questions in CDP, GRI, and Refinitiv compliant reporting, and sharing our SBTi aligned targets.

We avoided significant amount of Scope 1 & Scope 2 emissions by saving 47 GWh of energy through our energy efficiency projects in 2023. In addition, we prevented 23% of the total Scope 1 and 2 emissions thanks to the I-REC certificates we received. Thus, by reducing our Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 22% in 2023 compared to 2020, we are one step closer to our goals of 45% reduction by 2030 and net zero by 2050.

An I-REC certificate is a verification for environmental quality of every 1 MWh of electricity generated from renewable energy. To improve our electricity consumption mix, we increased the amount of renewable energy certificates we purchased. We acquired 340 thousand MWh of I-REC certificates, increasing by 15% compared to the previous year. We reduced the Scope 2 emissions of 2023 resulting from our electricity consumption by 149 thousand tonnes of CO₂e with the I-REC renewable energy certificates we purchased.