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While global carbon emissions, which have increased by more than 60% in 30 years, continue to be a threat to our planet, Faradai, a technology company that offers artificial intelligence-supported solutions in the field of sustainability, held a pioneering workshop on sustainability and decarbonisation just before World Environment Day. The workshop, attended by sustainability leaders from the business world, focused on data-driven decarbonisation and sustainability strategies.

TURKEY - According to the data published by Statista, global carbon emissions, which have increased by more than 60% in the last 30 years due to fossil fuels and industry, continue to be a threat to our planet. In this direction, while efforts to protect the environment around the world are accelerating, Faradai, a technology company that offers artificial intelligence-supported solutions in the field of sustainability, held a pioneering workshop on sustainability and decarbonisation just before Environment Day on June 5. On June 4, Faradai brought together leading sustainability leaders at a workshop on "technology and data in decarbonisation" held at Postane-Istanbul. The workshop was attended by senior executives from local and global industrial companies, holdings, banking and retail sectors. 

Data-driven sustainability is on the agenda of the business world.

Stating that the event focused on data-driven decarbonisation and sustainability strategies, Faradai CEO Şahin Çağlayan said about the workshops: "The agenda of the past 10 years in sustainability was to set net zero targets and mandatory emission reporting. The agenda for the next 10 years will be data-driven, realistic decarbonisation performance assessments, ongoing decarbonisation measurement and transition to a verification culture. Emission reporting will no longer be an end in itself, but a means to an organisation's journey towards net zero. This cultural transformation is only possible with the active use of data analysis, internet of things and artificial intelligence in carbonisation processes."

Şahin Çağlayan said, "The biggest problem of organisations in this transformation is to collect data in a healthy and continuous, automatic way. It seems to be able to illuminate the dark spots in the supply chain with data, to make sense of this data and to use it in decarbonisation studies. Our workshop, in which we detailed successful applications, case studies and sample technology usage scenarios from the field, especially on these issues, attracted great interest from the senior management of many large organisations. We can say that the workshop was a very productive start in terms of enabling peer learning and laying the foundations of the decarbonisation technologies ecosystem. We would like to thank all our guests for their valuable contributions." and shared the details about the event.
 
In this context, issues such as real-time data collection, data quality and security, analysis and management in decarbonisation processes and strategies were discussed in detail at the workshop. How technologies such as artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things can be integrated into processes was explained. Problems related to data collection and management, reporting, legal compliance and transparency were discussed with the participants. The opportunities and threats created by technology and artificial intelligence in these processes were evaluated. Sustainability leaders of the companies participating in the workshop made important statements on decarbonisation, sustainability, data management and technology.

"Digitalisation of sustainability processes is very important"

Burak Sefer, Co-Founder and COO of Faradai, which focuses on decarbonisation, real-time data, cyber security and technology, said: "Digitalisation of sustainability processes is critical for improving the business processes of relevant units and enabling institutions to take strategic steps more effectively. Automating data collection processes by integrating them with IoT devices, existing management systems, ERP software and third-party service providers, and collecting them flawlessly from various sources with artificial intelligence applications are of great importance in terms of tracking decarbonisation metrics. Especially in the technology solutions to be used by corporate companies, the ability to integrate with existing internal systems, cloud and on-premise flexibility, cyber and data security applications, and compliance with current legislation and IT requirements are priorities. Among these, of course, there is also the ability to adapt to current technologies with advanced software architecture."

"Collecting sustainability data is a challenge for large companies"

Başak Helen Taşkan, Sustainability and Business Excellence Coordinator at TAV Airports: "In large-scale organisations with geographical and operational diversity, collecting sustainability data is one of the most important challenges. Regular and consistent data is needed for corporate sustainability performance to become measurable. Today, when trying to position not sustainability strategy but sustainability integrated into business strategy, it is important to understand that there is no such category as "sustainability or ESG data". The data collected by function leaders to monitor and measure the performance of the organisation in every area and to initiate improvement activities also serve to make sense of corporate sustainability indicators. In order to achieve this, the data must be owned by the relevant function, regularly monitored and analysed within this framework. In summary, corporate awareness, ownership and organisational culture are determining factors in sustainability and data management." 

"Digitalisation is at the centre of ESG-oriented data collection"

Akçansa Sustainability Manager Erhan Çalışkan: "Transparent measurement, reporting and verification activities for the decarbonisation journey will be among the top priority strategic areas of the institutions. Digitalisation is a very important step in ESG-oriented data collection and verification processes. Even just following the current legislation can take a lot of time for the relevant units. I think it would be more accurate in terms of labour efficiency to manage these processes from a single point with a digitalisation-supported alarm and tracking system. In addition, for the sake of the efficiency of integrated reporting processes, it will increase the quality of reporting if institutions effectively bring sustainability audits every quarter or half-year through internal audit and inspection units."

"Sustainability managers are almost like conductors"

Faradai Sustainability Manager Pınar Bahar Yücel said that she likens sustainability managers to an orchestra conductor and added the following: "I liken sustainability managers to an orchestra conductor. They fight for different issues on different fronts. They have a duty to manage the activation of every instrument at the right time for all internal and external stakeholders to achieve their sustainability goals. You can see them in many areas from strategy development and implementation to risk management, from transforming corporate culture to ESG performance monitoring and reporting, from cooperation with stakeholders to compliance management. In particular, promoting the use of innovative digital solutions in the field of decarbonisation is a very valuable mission."

"An action plan should be created in digitalisation processes"

Alper Öz, Faradai GMY Responsible for Operations, made the following statements at the workshop on data and digitalisation: "In order to plan the management, analysis and actions of data in digitalisation processes, it needs to be evaluated holistically from end to end. On the other hand, appropriate infrastructure should be designed. When viewed with traditional methods, the volume and diversity of data collected from many sources can create confusion. However, this is exactly what we are talking about. The healthy data collected from such a systematic infrastructure is also easier to analyse with well-designed artificial intelligence algorithms or predefined scenarios, and manual processes can be shelved. In case of alarms, reporting and taking action, each responsible person can be assigned in line with their duties and authorisations. Thanks to this organised structure, transparent processes emerge where time is saved and inefficiencies are minimised." 

"We expect artificial intelligence to support organisations in focusing and setting goals"

Corporate Sustainability Engineer Veysel Koca: "Within the scope of data analytics, our expectation from artificial intelligence is that it will provide suggestions on the focus of companies and support organisations in setting and achieving their goals. It is challenging to receive data from suppliers and to confirm the accuracy of the data received. Digitalisation processes are supportive in these matters, but there are different barriers at the implementation points, as it is considered costly by institutions to apply it to all disciplines and the field." 

CCI Environment Manager Yusuf Dulda added the following about the environmental awareness of consumers: "Today, young people want to see and consume environmentally conscious and environmentally sensitive products. They question the products they consume. We have a generation that is really sensitive about this issue. They are aware of both the output and the cost of the products they consume and are ready to meet the requirements for this."