Adil Sani Konukoğlu
TARGETING THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY. Participating in the Uludağ Economic Summit, where the business world convenes, Adil Sani Konukoğlu, Chairman of SANKO Holding, conveyed that they have embraced sustainability as a core strategy across all their companies.
Adil Sani Konukoğlu, Chairman of SANKO Holding, attended the Uludağ Economic Summit panel titled “Sustainable Business Models and Strategies for the 21st Century.” Stating “We are on the brink of a major environmental, social, and economic change,” Konukoğlu emphasized that as a 120-year-old industrial company since 1904, they have played a critical role and pioneered initiatives.
“CHANGE IS IN THE AIR. WE ALL MUST ADAPT TO CHANGE AND TRANSFORMATION”
Konukoğlu mentioned that it is more challenging to implement sustainability and change in traditional companies. He stated, “When you start a new company, you shape everything according to the conditions of the day, but when you have employees who have been with the company for 30-40 years, we sometimes encounter challenges in making changes. Change is in the air. We all must adapt to change and transformation.”
He noted that he realized the difficulty of communicating with the younger generation in a changing world and learned how to approach and communicate with the new generation by mentoring young people aged 18-22 and 24 in reverse mentorship. He stated, “I made it mandatory for our executives to receive reverse mentorship training. By June, all our executives will receive reverse mentorship training. This way, we will learn how to view the future world.”
Highlighting SANKO Holding’s 120-year struggle to be a sustainable company, Konukoğlu continued:
“My late father, Sani Bey, used to say, ‘A business that does not renew itself renews its owner. If you cannot adapt to the changing times, someone will come and buy your company and make the changes.’ Change does not only happen within your own company. You have to think about your surroundings while implementing change. We collaborate with responsible companies throughout the entire supply chain. Additionally, we try to be together with our friends who are outside our employees in all the cities where we operate and address their problems. We are making efforts to act together.”
SANKO HOLDING LEADS CHANGE AND TRANSFORMATION IN SECTORS
Leading in various industrial sectors by making good use of technology, SANKO Holding conducts technology investments in sectors such as textiles, energy, construction, and packaging, aiming for technological transformation in all its companies’ processes and global standards.
Konukoğlu emphasized that SANKO Holding has pioneered initiatives in the sectors, highlighting sustainability efforts in the sectors:
“We have made investments in the cement sector to recover recyclable heat. We are also working to reduce our carbon footprint. We allocated about $15 million for R&D. We aim to produce innovative and sustainable products.
“In the global textile industry, about 100 million tons of waste are generated, and only 1% of this waste can be recycled. We are trying to lead in recycling in the sector.”
Stating that they evaluate textile waste and use it in fabric production at the textile recycling facility established in 2021, Konukoğlu said, “We allocated a budget of about $150 million to this issue.”
Konukoğlu stated that recycling initiatives contribute to the circular economy with RE&UP’s revolutionary technology, saying, “Our new initiative RE&UP, with its technology developed by SANKO R&D, will play a pioneering role in the transition to sustainable fashion and the circular economy in local and global markets.”
Clean energy investments
With a 100% renewable energy portfolio, SANKO Enerji has a capacity of 1000 MW.
“In the energy sector, we make all our investments in renewable energy sources. We do not have and do not intend to have investments in fossil fuels.”
“In the packaging sector, we have many innovative projects. For example, we are working on films developed from seaweed grown in terrestrial environments. It received the Worldstar Award worldwide.”
In addition to renewing our products sustainably, we are working with all our might to protect our environment and ecosystem. As Sanko, we allocate a large portion of our profits to the efforts for the ecosystem.”
“We value women’s presence in the business world”
Adil Sani Konukoğlu, who spoke about Sanko Holding’s sustainability steps, emphasized that the participation rate of women, who constitute half of Turkey’s population, in the business world is quite low, and included SANKO Holding’s goals for female employment in his speech. Konukoğlu concluded his speech by saying, “We will increase our female employee rate to 40% by 2030 and to 50% by 2035. If I do not see a female CV alternative for executive positions alongside the male CV in the appointments made today, I do not approve it.”
Moderated by Multinet Up CEO Ali Emre Sever, the panel titled “Sustainable Business Models and Strategies in the 21st Century” included SANKO Holding Chairman of the Board Adil Sani Konukoğlu, as well as Ebru Dildar Edin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Business World and Sustainable Development Association Turkey, Murat Bilgiç, Member of the Board of Directors of the Industrial Development Bank of Turkey, Osman Arıoğlu, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Eksim Holding, and Dr. Ömer Özgür Tort, Executive President of Migros Group, as speakers.
Organized in Sapanca this year by Capital and Economist Magazines, the Uludağ Economic Summit was held under the theme of “Responsible and Sensitive Leadership: Leading the Transition to a System Compatible with the Planet and Humanity in the Age of Technology and Artificial Intelligence.”
About SANKO Holding’s new initiative RE&UP:
The new initiative RE&UP offers revolutionary technology
The RE&UP technology was developed by SANKO Holding’s more than 120 years of textile experience and over 10 years of in-house R&D efforts. RE&UP is a revolutionary new-generation technology initiative that transforms textile waste into high-quality, sustainable, and ready-to-use recycled raw materials.
RE&UP offers a solution to one of the global bottlenecks of recycling in the textile industry by enabling the reintegration of textile waste into the textile value chain and accelerating the transition to a circular economy model in the sector.
Providing services with recycled fiber facilities in Gaziantep and Bursa, RE&UP Recycling Technologies carry a revolutionary feature in recycling from textiles to textiles. It supports the rapid transition of the fashion industry to a circular model.