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Arçelik CEO Hakan Bulgurlu's keynote speech urges businesses to innovate for sustainable change to protect the natural world from environmental decline
BERLIN, Sept. 5, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Arçelik, the global household appliances manufacturer and parent company of 12 leading home appliance brands, including two of Europe's well known brands, Beko and Grundig, keynoted at IFA 2022 calling for sector-wide action to tackle climate change.
In his keynote speech, Mr Bulgurlu spoke of the challenge facing the corporate world, highlighting that rising business innovation has led to more consumption, thus contributing to environmental stress.
Mr Bulgurlu believes that getting this balance right is the purpose of innovation, to create tailored technological solutions to the world's environmental challenges. The clean energy transition, the development of regulated, transparent carbon markets, and the phasing out of coal by 2050 were all stressed as essential climate actions the world needs to take if it is to stand any chance of keeping the 1.5C goal alive.
Arçelik's CEO spoke proudly of the corporation's steely focus on hitting many ambitious climate targets, imploring that the 2050 target date for Net Zero is not an abstract international exercise, but about the lives of every living species on the planet.
Protecting water supply has never been more urgent in a warming world
The event also saw Arçelik launch a new technology designed to tackle household water waste. The new cutting edge SaveWater technology in dishwasher and tumble dryer-washing machine couple, unveiled exclusively for the first time at IFA Berlin, has been crafted to provide perfect cleaning, while helping households use water more efficiently.
The enhanced dishwasher technology saves the last rinsing water in the cycle to be used in the beginning of the next wash. While the SaveWater technology in the tumble dryer-washing machine couple saves up to 5.2 litres of water per load, the dishwasher uses only 6.9 litres of water to wash a full load with 16 place settings capacity, saving 2.6 litres of water every wash whilst offering the lowest water consumption in the Beko range. Developed with water efficiency at heart, the new SaveWater line by Beko gives back a total of up to 7.8 litres of water at every cycle, to you and the world*.
In addition to championing resource efficient innovations, Arçelik also leverages the latest technologies across its own production operations to identify water risks and increase efficiency. Over the past 12 years, Arçelik has saved 2.17 million cubic metres of water, equivalent to the daily water consumption of approximately 2.7 million Turkish households.
Additionally, Arçelik collaborates with both global and local partners, to engage communities and promote sustainable water management. This year, Arçelik is proud to commence its partnership with Water.org, to fund water access projects in Kenya to empower local communities and make a lasting impact to provide water and sanitation solutions.
Hakan Bulgurlu, Chief Executive Officer, Arçelik, said: "Our planet is in a state of climate emergency. Humanity stands at a crossroads in the history of our planet that will define us as a generation of doers or naysayers. At a time like this, sustainability should be a mandatory business model and not merely a cost driver.
"All of us in this industry need to prioritise innovation and commit to inventing technologies that make a real difference to energy, water, and environmental issues.
"At Arçelik we want to use our global status and resources to drive the international agenda for climate protection, greater product efficiencies, and durability to help us all get richer, without making our planet far poorer. The SaveWater product line demonstrates our ambition to be the world's most sustainable brand and embrace innovative technologies that will benefit people across the world.
"It's time to step up to the challenge, the reward for our collective climate action will be our security as a viable industry operating in stable markets where people are free to grow their businesses, their families, and their communities without the risk of climate catastrophe looming large on the horizon."
Arçelik is constantly innovating to meet the challenges of the 21st century, from resource efficiency to waste management and recycling. This also includes its approach to environmentally-friendly packaging alternatives. In 2021, Arçelik used 324 tons of 100% recycled and recyclable cardboard and 40 tons of molded pulp instead of EPS in the cooker, hood, small domestic appliances, and consumer electronics categories. Arçelik is the first home appliance manufacturer worldwide to offer a major domestic appliances line-up with EPS-free packaging.
These far-reaching commitments and actions have earned Arçelik important industry accolades, including being listed as the first and only Turkish manufacturer in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for the third year in a row and acknowledged by the FTSE4Good and BIST Indexes.
Notes to editors
*Disclaimer: *Tumble Dryer saves up to 5.2L of water per cycle for full load 10kg declaration programme. Dishwasher saves 2.6L of water per cycle in Eco Program compared to similar Beko Dishwashers without SaveWater Technology. Beko SaveWater Line saves up to total 7.8 Litres of water at every cycle.
About Arçelik
With over 40,000 employees throughout the world, Arçelik's global operations including sales and marketing offices in 52 countries, and 28 production facilities in 9 countries with 12 brands (Arçelik, Beko, Grundig, Blomberg, ElektraBregenz, Arctic, Leisure, Flavel, Defy, Altus, Dawlance, Voltas Beko). As Europe's second-largest white goods company by market share (based on volumes), Arçelik reached a consolidated turnover of 6.5 billion Euros in 2021. Arçelik's 28 R&D and Design Centers & Offices across the globe, are home to over 2,200 researchers and hold more than 3,000 international patent applications to date. In 2021, Arçelik achieved the highest score in the DHP Household Durables category for the 3rd year in a row in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index of the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment. Through its leadership position in sustainability and credible decarbonization roadmap for achieving net zero, Arçelik became the first and only company from its industry to receive the Terra Carta Seal by HRH Prince of Wales. Arçelik's mission is 'Respecting the World, Respected Worldwide.'
