Carbon Disclosure Project, carried out by Sabanci University Corporate Governance Forum since 2010, is in its third year in Turkey with the support of Akbank. Carbon Disclosure Project is regarded as the most prestigious and widespread environmental initiative in the world, and offers companies to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and climate change strategies to institutional investors.

CDP Turkey 2012 report, prepared by Sabanci University CDP team in collaboration with Ernst & Young Turkey, analyses company responses from Turkey and summarizes climate change related trends in Turkey. The forewords are written by Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan, Akbank’s board chairman Suzan Sabanci Dincer and CDP’s CEO Paul Simpson. In 2012, 32 companies from Turkey responded to CDP’s information request, a significant increase from 20 respondents in 2011. Responses from non-ISE-100 companies in 2012 contributed to this increase in response rates.

Aviva Investment Chairman Paul Abberley, and CDP Turkey Director and Sabancı University faculty member spoke at the launch event for CDP Turkey 2012, following the opening speech by Akbank’s General Manager Hakan Binbaşgil. In his speech, Paul Abberley emphasized the importance of Rio+20’s outcome document ‘The Future We Want’ and its expected influences on current sustainability and environmental reporting frameworks. Following Abberley, Melsa Ararat summarized CDP Turkey 2012 Report findings and announced CDP Turkey Disclosure and Performance Leaders.

Aviva Investment led a coalition of institutional investors that lobbied for the inclusion of Paragraph 47 on sustainability reporting in Rio+20 outcome document, ‘The Future We Want.’ Chairman Paul Abberley said that Aviva Investment believes in the importance of better disclosure on environmental, social and governance issues as part of company strategies to allow better investment decisions. He believes that the Carbon Disclosure Project plays an important role for achieving better sustainability reporting and strengthening the relationship between sustainable economic development and financial markets.

CDP Disclosure and Performance Leaders in Turkey received their awards in the event. Arçelik’s General Manager İsmail Hakkı Sağır accepted CDP Turkey 2012 Disclosure Leadership award on behalf of his company from Nihat Berker, President of Sabanci University. Garanti Bank received CDP Turkey 2012 Performance Leadership award. Garanti Bank Executive Vice President Ebru Dildar Edin accepted the award on behalf of her company, presented to her by Ernst & Young Turkey’s Head of Assurance Services Dilek Çilingir.

Full report is accessible from here.