sahibinden.com Sustainability Report: The Company Aims to Become Carbon Neutral by 2025
Foreks - sahibinden.com explains its mission for a "better future" and the steps it has taken in the field of sustainability through its Sustainability Report. The company aims to become carbon neutral by 2025.
As Turkey’s sahibinden.com, which sees sustainability as a core value of its existence and centers it in its business model, has shared its sustainability strategy for 2023, detailing its activities, targets, and performance through its first comprehensive Sustainability Report. The sahibinden.com Sustainability Report has been prepared in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Universal Standards 2021, referencing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The report presents concrete data on the company’s efforts to reduce its environmental impacts, its contributions to the circular economy through its business model that revitalizes second-hand goods in the economy, and its commitments to values such as diversity, inclusion, and gender equality within the sustainability framework.
Burak Ertaş, the CEO of sahibinden.com, shared his views on the company’s sustainability strategy and the report, stating, “As Turkey’s sahibinden.com, we have been pioneers in our industry with the technological infrastructure and business model we developed on our journey that started 24 years ago with the vision of ‘connecting people with their dreams.’ The strength we derive from our users, our continuous investments in technology that have led to our competencies, and most importantly, our business model that contributes to a circular economy, also brings us a unique responsibility to take concrete steps in sustainability. It is an honor for us to announce our first report in this area. Next year, we will celebrate the 25th anniversary of our establishment. We will continue our efforts in sustainability, to which we have contributed since the day we were founded, adhering to our commitments, working tirelessly to reduce our environmental impacts and fulfill our social responsibilities.”
The company underlined that it is committed to making the world more livable through its understanding of “Owning the Future.” sahibinden.com’s Deputy General Manager of Human and Sustainability, Güntulu Peker, noted that they shared the progress they made in reducing their environmental impact, providing social benefits, and improving corporate governance standards in a holistic report, saying, “In line with the meticulous work of our Sustainability Committee, it is a great honor and joy for us to publish the sahibinden.com Sustainability Report. We hope this report will serve as an example in our sector and create value for our employees, users, and society.”
Founded in 2000 with a forward-thinking vision, sahibinden.com stands as a pioneer in its industry with nearly 8 million active listings, hundreds of thousands of product varieties, its own developed technologies, and R&D efforts, making it one of Turkey's leading technology companies. With 24 years of rooted experience, a leading position in technology production, and sustainability-focused services, sahibinden.com hosts nearly 65 million active users and now represents a large ecosystem.
sahibinden.com approaches its sustainability strategy, built on the understanding of “Owning the Future” collaboratively with its users, employees, society, and business partners within its value chain. Its corporate values, impact areas, priority strategic issues, and the Sustainability Strategy defined within the framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals focus on three areas under the “Owning the Future” approach: “Owning the World,” “Owning the Transformation,” and “Owning Equality.”
Owning the World
sahibinden.com acts with the awareness that resources need to be used more efficiently to combat climate change and protect our world. In this context, it takes determined steps to reduce its carbon footprint, strives to use water and energy resources effectively, and is careful to reduce waste production. When creating its environmental strategy, it aims to monitor, reduce its environmental impact, and create positive effects using its capacity and expertise. It shares its commitments, which include these goals, with all its stakeholders through its sustainability policy and strategy, expanding its impact area. For example, within the scope of its decarbonization initiatives, the transition to a hybrid vehicle fleet started in 2022, replacing 79% of a fleet consisting of 204 vehicles with hybrid models, thus achieving a saving of 329 tons of CO2 emissions in 2023. The company also shared its goal of being neutral in its Scope 1 carbon footprint from its operations by 2025.
Owning the Transformation
By its area of activity, sahibinden.com differentiates itself through its innovative business model, which has served to reintegrate second-hand products into the economy since its inception, enabling people to meet their dreams more easily and securely. It greatly values the transformative impact of the circular economy, which supports economic resilience against climate change by reducing raw material dependency through the transfer and reuse of products. In this context, sahibinden.com not only contributes to the circular economy through its direct business processes but also works to raise awareness among its users, the largest component of its ecosystem, about this issue, promoting the idea that second-hand shopping is a sustainable solution. To support these efforts, it publishes a report every year on the Contribution of Second-hand to Sustainability. According to this year's report, approximately 12.6 million tons of CO2 equivalent savings were achieved from second-hand product sales realized through sahibinden.com in 2023.
Owning Equality
sahibinden.com places great importance on ensuring diversity, fairness, and inclusivity across all areas of social life and for all segments of society, and in developing social awareness in this regard. It centers this understanding in its business processes, fostering equitable, fair, and trust-based relationships, starting from within the company with its most important stakeholders, which are its employees, and establishing its corporate culture on these principles. The principle of equality, which it prioritizes strategically and is an important aspect of its corporate structure, is put into practice for all its employees through fair practices and necessary procedures that are developed and implemented. The company, which has the Opportunity Equality Document and the Equal Employment Certificate for women, integrates its commitment to gender equality into all its business processes and employee rights, developing employee experience strategies to balance the ratio of women to men among its employees and quickly implementing a transparent and fair approach in all processes from hiring to promotion. As a result of this strategy, the proportion of female employees among the total workforce of sahibinden.com stands at 44%, while the proportion of managers is at 38%.