Environmental Management

In line with its sustainability approach and commitment to tackle climate crisis, Arçelik works to minimize the environmental impacts of its products throughout their lifecycle thanks to new generation practices, and to reduce its environmental footprint by effectively managing all stages of value chain. 

Arçelik initially received BS 7750 Environmental Management Systems Standard in 1994 for its Dishwasher Plant just two years after it was introduced as the first Environmental Management Standard of the world. Afterwards, upon BS 7750 Standard’s recognition as ISO 14001 in 1996, Arçelik has started to apply ISO 14001 Standard of Environmental Management System.

Arçelik implements ISO 14001 Environmental Management System (EMS) integrated with ISO 9001 Quality Management System (QMS) and ISO 50001 Energy Management System (EnMS).

Arçelik has been calculating GHG emissions using IPCC and GHG Protocol guidelines and ISO 14064-1. This data has been verified by an independent organization in accordance with ISO 14064-3 Standard since 2010 until 2023. However, to be in line with changing regulations, Arçelik has started to use ISAE 3410 for the 2024 reporting year data.

In addition to the stated policies, Arçelik bases its environmental and energy management on international standards. Arçelik has been managing all its business processes with the help of international management systems since 1994, and Arçelik regularly check the efficiency and continuity of these systems through audits by independent institutions.

The Sustainability Council where all C-level executive team serve as inherent members is the highest unit responsible for all environmental management issues. Other D-level executives also participate to the Council, depending on the issues to be discussed at the meetings. Here, everyday work and efforts undertaken by Sustainability Working Groups (WGs) such as Climate Change WG, Environment WG etc. are fed into the agenda of SC. Within this framework, biodiversity is a topic that falls into the responsibility of this Council as well. Together with sustainability WGs efforts, the Sustainability Department and Enterprise Risk and Insurance Management Directorate identify and when possible, quantify sustainability-related (including biodiversity) risks, opportunities, dependencies and impacts. These results of these studies are discussed and assessed in SC. With the work presented to SC, future trends in environmental dependencies, impacts, risks, and opportunities are also assessed in the SC. In the light of all these efforts, SC develops the business strategy considering sustainability issues.

Arçelik Sustainability Council is led by the CFO. The Council consists of the executive management team including the Chief Finance Officer (Chairperson), Chief Executive Officer, Chief People Officer, Chief Commercial Officer, Chief Marketing Officer, Chief Strategy & Digital Officer, Chief Technology Officer, Chief Sustainability, Quality and Customer Care Officer (CSO), Executive Directors of Global Communications, R&D, Legal & Compliance, Human Rights, Sustainability Director, Enterprise Risk & Insurance Management Director.

Arçelik’s Sustainability Council and the Climate Change Working Group identify policies and strategies regarding sustainability and the climate crisis, from which we establish collaborations, ensure that decisions taken are implemented, and track performances to make sure targets are met.

At Board of Director (BoD) level, a Board Member - who is also Koç Holding Consumer Durables’ President - has been tasked with reporting the climate-related issues to the BoD. The BoD and responsible Board member are involved in overseeing the setting of corporate targets, monitoring progress towards corporate targets, approving corporate policies and/or commitments, overseeing and guiding the development of a business strategy, overseeing and guiding acquisitions, mergers, and divestitures, overseeing and guiding major capital expenditures, monitoring the implementation of a climate transition plan. There is a board-level Early Detection of Risk Committee.

Director of Environment Management (Central Environment Management Department), who directly reports to CSO, manages environmental sustainability management related issues and leads Environmental Coordination WG, Climate Change Coordination WG, and Green Chemistry Coordination WG. 

Environmental performances of Arçelik's plants are monitored monthly with the environmental performance report and reported to the top management monthly. The continuity of EMS is controlled by internal audits and the audit results are shared with top management in management review meetings. The efficiency and continuity of management systems are assured by Internal System Audits carried out regularly as well as the inspections by independent organizations. Environmental performance of the suppliers is evaluated by inspections and audits. 

Thanks to its strength legal requirements compliance management system, ARÇELİK has neither monetary fines nor non-monetary sanctions indicating non-compliance with environmental laws and regulations.

We consider environmental management extremely important in the fight against the climate crisis and environmental pollution, and every year we increase our investments and expenditures in this field. Amount of investments and expenditures are given in the Environmental Management part of the 2024 Sustainability Report.

We measure air emissions to maintain air quality, and we share our results with the relevant official institutions. We also ensure that our performance is evaluated by independent and accredited laboratories that measure the level of compliance with regulations. Emission values for all our plants fell within legal limits. The waste gas treatment devices such as activated carbon filter, wet scrubber, dust collector, cyclone with a sieve, and bag filter provide NOx, SOx, VOC, and PM reduction in our Arçelik Hitachi Thailand and China manufacturing plants within the scope of environmental legislation. Additionally, Beko Thailand manufacturing plant has a dust collector and bag filter for PM reduction.