Message from the Chairman of the Board
Borusan’s Road to Sustainability
The concept of “sustainability” has certainly
made its mark on the new millennium.
The dictionary defi nition of “sustainability”
is the operation of any system without
interruption or breakdown, nor depletion from
overconsumption or the overloading of the main
life support systems.
The word was originally used in the academic
world during the second half of the decade
of the 80’s, in particular due to the geometric
increase in the consumption of natural energy
sources. Since then, the term has been
adopted by the international community as
well. In 1987 the word “sustainability” became
the basis of the United Nations Environment
and Development Report, stemming from
the following sentence: “Humanity is capable
of development that meets the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs.”
Therefore, sustainable development became
defi ned as the management of the methods
supporting economic growth as well as
prosperity while protecting the environments
and life quality of everyone on earth.
During the past 10 years, initially
macroeconomic sustainability, followed
by microeconomic sustainability, were
acknowledged as the criteria for success.
In business life, respect and support for the
environment, employees, culture and the whole
of society became an indispensable part of
success.
While debates continued globally as to the
specifi c requirements of economic, social and
environmental sustainability Borusan began
implementing many of these measures in all
of our companies without formally doing so in the name of sustainability. However, we did
not possess a consolidated breakdown of this
principle and its applications.
ITherefore, within the framework of
sustainability, we took the following steps prior
to presenting this report:
- In the process of preparing our 2006-2010
strategic development plan, we clearly defi ned
what is now known as the “Borusan Way.”
- From this perspective, we reassessed our
principles and methods of implementation.
- We gained the capability to measure our
own performance and began to prepare this
sustainability report.
In 2006, we signed the United Nations Global
Compact agreement, consisting of ten articles
covering topics ranging from human rights and
work standards to protecting the environment
and measures designed to combat corruption.
As a result of this UN initiative, which
commenced in 1999 and currently includes
1,300 companies across the globe, we made a
corporate commitment that the “Borusan Way”
would chart our course.
In terms of growth our company has
consistently performed signifi cantly higher
than the national average. In this process of
rapid growth the “Borusan Way” has become
our primary philosophy with regard to the
environment, the rights of employees and our
contribution to society.
The report in your hands currently refl ects
the sustainability related activities of all
the companies within our Group up until
July 2008. I am quite confi dent that we will
continue our excellent performance this year,
an improvement in our performance which
will be eminently refl ected in our 2008-2009
sustainability report.
A. Ahmet Kocabıyık
Chairman of the Board
Borusan Holding