‘‘Sustainability is the New Route for the Textile Industry’’

Sustainable production was emphasized in the ‘Circular Economy’ panel hosted by UTİB. UTİB President Pınar Taşdelen Engin stated that the industry has undergone a great transformation in terms of adapting to the new lifestyle.

In cooperation with Uludağ Textile Exporters’ Association (UTİB) and DCube Circular Economy Cooperative, ‘Circular Economy Practices in Textile Industry Panel’ was held online, moderated by UTİB Chairman Pınar Taşdelen Engin and DCube Chairman Berna Aşiroğlu.

Trainings continue at BUTEKOM

Pınar Taşdelen Engin, Chairperson of the Board of Directors of UTİB, expressed the following regarding the subject, ‘‘Our companies in the textile sector are adapting gradually to environmentally friendly production day by day. As the Union, we have many studies on this subject. In our Bursa Technology and Coordination R&D Center (BUTEKOM), which we established with the partnership of UTİB, UHKİB, and BTSO, we organize pieces of training focusing on environmental production. Moreover, our UR-Ge project on ecological textiles continues.’’

Emphasis on the European Green Deal

Stating that companies should adopt a sustainability-based approach in the name of circular economy, DCube Chairperson of the Board Berna Aşiroğlu continued her statement as follows, ‘‘With the European Green Deal, it is understood that the European Union will realize the industrial transformation until 2050 with a new growth strategy and all policies will be implemented in the light of climate change. It is stated that with the new order, environmentally harmful and carbon-based growth will be replaced by growth models based on energy and material-efficient circular economy. The new economic strategy of the European Union focused on combating climate change is critical for us as it will rapidly bring the transformation of countries such as Turkey, which is in commercial, financial, and political cooperation with the EU, to the agenda.’’

İpeker: ‘‘We pursue vegan production’’

İhsan İpeker, Member of the Board of Directors of UTİB and Member of the Board of İpeker Textile indicated the following on the topic, ‘‘As humanity, our luxury of consuming endlessly has ceased. That’s why change is needed. This total change is not a phenomenon that can be carried out only from the perspective of the industry and the industrialists. Here, the mental view of the consumer needs to change. I believe that the brands we work with are not 100 percent sincere in this regard. Awareness needs to be increased here. As İpeker Textile, the most important thing for us is the life cycle. We continue our activities with vegan licensed production, which is a good example of transformed sustainability. We have been crowned with many environmental awards and international sustainability business awards with our work in the field of sustainability.’’

Ünlütürk: ‘‘Use of coal completely eliminated’’

Expressing that they plan all their corporate strategies on the basis of sustainability principles, Sun Tekstil Chairperson of the Board Elvan Ünlütürk said, ‘‘We are among the members of the UN Global Compact, the world’s largest corporate sustainability platform, and we are in full support of the ‘Sustainable Development Goals’. In addition to the use of recycled and nature-friendly materials, we develop designs that we call ‘Re-Imagined Designs’, in which we re-evaluate the surplus finished products in our production processes. As of 2021, we have completely eliminated the use of coal in energy production. Thus, we reduced our 5 thousand tons of carbon dioxide emissions. We measure our greenhouse gas emissions at all levels and continue to report and declare, and work to improve our processes in line with the results.’’

Bioplastic developed from olive kernel

In the TechXtile Start-Up Challenge in 2020, Biolive Company Founding Partner Duygu Yılmaz shared information about her initiative, which won the first prize with her project titled ‘‘Sustainable Textile Products and Vegetable Leather Production with Biopolymer that Protects the Nature Obtained from Olive Seed Waste Pomace’’. Yılmaz said, ‘‘We created the bioplastic invention from olive seed waste. Every year 500 thousand tons of olive seed waste pomace is produced in Turkey and 6 million tons globally. We first started the production of biopolymer from olive pits and produced products for many sectors from automotive to electronics and food packaging. Under the leadership of Rebil Group company, we established the Oleatex brand by inventing vegetable leather with this polymer structure obtained from olive seed waste.’’

Cesur: ‘‘Human-first approach’’

Dilek Cesur, Yeşim Tekstil Corporate Communications Director, expressed that Yeşim Tekstil has been working on sustainability and circular economy for many years and continued as follows, ‘‘Our company, which is an integrated global player in the world industry league, attaches priority to the concepts of sustainability and circular economy in every step it takes. All these concepts are built on the principle of the ‘Human-First’ approach, which is the main principle of our company, and are placed in a transparent method that is audited and maintained. We are the first ready-to-wear company to sign the UN Global Compact principles, the world’s largest sustainability network, in 2006.’’