Carbon Emission
As Atakey Patates Gıda, we calculate our corporate carbon footprint and make use of the opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions arising from our activities, in order to keep our impact on climate change at a minimum level.
As of 2023, we started to calculate our carbon footprint by measuring our greenhouse gas emissions arising from our production processes and supply chain, through the Supplier Leadership on Climate Transition (S-LoCT) program, of which we are a member. Within the framework of our analyses and the results we have achieved, we make use of the emission reduction opportunities with the aim of reducing our net total emissions in terms of carbon dioxide. Through this program we participate in, we collect our data in compliance with The Greenhouse Gas Protocol standard published in collaboration with the World Resources Institute and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development organizations, and we prepare our corporate carbon footprint report annually, which includes our Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions.
In 2023, we made a commitment to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), which was established as a result of the collaboration between the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), the World Resources Institute (WRI), the UN Global Compact and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), to reduce our carbon footprint. Through this commitment, we have made our official statement that we will have our near-term, science-based target validated by the SBTi organization.
Our corresponding commitment was accepted by SBTi in May 2023. We will start to implement our emission reduction projects in order to achieve our science-based target focused on 2030, in line with the criteria set out in the Paris Agreement.
We commit:
to reduce our emissions from purchased electricity by procuring renewable energy certificates,
to make use of renewable energy investment opportunities and vehicle electrification activities in line with our 2030 emission reduction targets,
to carry out training and awareness raising activities, as needed, for employees who actively participate in the preparation of the organization’s carbon footprint report,
and to have our near-term, science-based target creation statement, that was accepted by the Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), validated by the SBTi.
Sustainable Agriculture
As Atakey Patates Gıda, we transformed our seed potato farming activities by observing sustainable agriculture principles and established the FSA Sustainable Agriculture Management System in 2023 with “Gold”-degree compliance. Within the scope of sustainable agriculture activities, we support sustainability in agriculture by addressing issues such as selection of plant materials, soil management, nutrient management, selection of plant protection products, conservation of biodiversity, and water management. In addition, we aim to raise awareness among our farmers, with whom we cooperate in the contract farming model, about best agricultural practices, digitalization in agriculture, sustainability, and new agricultural trends, through the sustainable agriculture-focused farmers training program that we will implement in 2024.
Sustainable Palm Oil Procurement
In 2021, we, as Atakey Patates Gıda, became a member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), an international association based in Malaysia, with the aim of ensuring the sustainable procurement of palm oil and supporting the conservation of biodiversity. With this membership, we have begun to contribute to the sustainability of palm oil by supporting the RSPO Association for every ton of oil we have purchased. As of June 2023, we have improved our raw material procurement method with a focus on sustainability and started to procure only RSPO Mass Balance (MB)-certified palm oil. In this context, 82% of the palm oil we procured in 2023 was RSPO MB-certified. In 2024, we aim to increase the proportion of the RSPO MB-certified palm oil we procure to 100%.
Energy and Environmental Management Systems
We aim to increase our energy efficiency through the ISO 50001 Energy Management System, which we integrated into the quality management system in 2023, and we aim to reduce the amount of electricity and natural gas we use per product. In this respect, we identify our energy efficiency opportunities by receiving energy audit services from companies approved by the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources of the Republic of Türkiye, and we implement improvement efforts.
We are designing activities to address our environmental impact in a system-focused manner through the ISO 14001 Environmental Management System, which we aim to establish in 2024. By analyzing both our significant environmental aspects and our environmental compliance obligations through the management system, we aim to identify our risks and opportunities associated with the relevant processes and to advance our efforts to implement environmental targets that will minimize our risks.
We aim to improve our environmental aspects such as energy and water consumption, greenhouse gas emission management, and waste management, through the ISO 14001 Environmental Management System that we will establish, and to ensure transparency in terms of our environmental impact through third-party independent audits.
Water Efficiency
As Atakey Patates Gıda, we aim to increase our efficiency in water use related to our agricultural and production activities.
In line with the vision of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to “produce more food with less water” in agriculture, we measure the amount of water we use in our seed potato farming activities and regularly check our irrigation systems.
Thanks to the irrigation calculations we make on a parcel basis, we calculate the amount of irrigation water needed for seed potatoes by also following meteorological data. By using modern irrigation systems, we increase our efficiency in water use. By using a tensiometer, we measure the soil surface moisture and determine the real-time water need of potatoes.
We aim to increase our water efficiency in our production processes as well as in our agricultural activities.
We designed the first process stage in the processing of raw potatoes, the washing step, by taking water efficiency into account. There is a daily water usage need of 1,800 m3 at the relevant process stage. Thanks to the mud pools in our facility, we reuse 250 m³ of water, which is freshly fed once every 18 days on average, through recirculation. Through our relevant infrastructure; instead of consuming 32,400 m³ of water in 18 days for fresh feeding, we consume only 250 m³ of water in the same period. In an 18-day period, we reuse 32,150 m³ of water, and therefore, in a production season of approximately 300 days, we save over 535,000 m³ of water.
In addition to process designs that increase water efficiency, we aim to recycle 20% of the discharge water from the wastewater treatment process by the end of 2026. In our production facility, approximately 2,500 m3 of wastewater per day passes through treatment processes (aerobic and anaerobic treatment), and is then brought into compliance with the criteria of the Water Pollution Regulation and is discharged into the receiving environment through a special sewer line. With this project, we aim to use, in the first stage, half of the water we will recycle, in our cooling towers by passing it through advanced filtration. Through the mentioned practice, we intend to reduce our water consumption by 15% by the end of 2026, compared to 2023 data.