Vakıf Participation Bank Sustainability Studies

Vakıf Participation Bank Sustainability Structuring

Vakıf Participation takes important steps to improve its performance in environmental, social and corporate governance issues in the fields of sustainability and green finance. In this direction, the establishment of the Sustainability Committee and the launch of the Sustainability Service within the Strategy Department as of December 2023 are recorded as significant progress.

The Sustainability Service aims to establish a more comprehensive and effective sustainability understanding within the Bank by ensuring the establishment of a sustainability governance structure together with the determination and monitoring of Vakıf Participation's sustainability strategies.

In addition, by establishing an Environmental and Social Impact Analysis Service within the Bank, project financing requests of USD 7.5 million and above, which are not included in Vakıf Participation's Prohibited Activity List, are subjected to Environmental and Social Risk Assessment in three categories, namely A, B and C.

Sustainability Committee

Within the framework of sustainability, the Sustainability Committee continues its efforts to develop the business and management strategy, to determine the targets set and to ensure the compliance of the Bank's operations with these targets.

Policies

The sustainability policies clearly reflect Vakıf Participation's sustainability vision and commitments, include the basic principles that support the bank's sustainability strategy, and demonstrate the bank's commitment to sustainability to stakeholders.

Sustainability Report

In 2024, the 2023 Sustainability Report will be shared with stakeholders, which will be an important step in evaluating Vakıf Participation's sustainability performance and strengthening its communication with stakeholders. The Sustainability Report will enable the bank to act in accordance with the principle of transparency and accountability by emphasising its achievements and areas for improvement in the field of environmental, social and corporate governance.

Education

Vakıf Participation Bank contributes to the development of a sustainability culture by offering its employees the opportunity to understand, adopt and integrate sustainability concepts into their business processes. It reinforces the work achieved in this context with expert colleagues with sustainability certificates and enables other colleagues to receive training and certificates in this direction upon request.

Vakıf Participation's Sustainability Efforts

Vakıf Participation draws attention with the financing support it provides for green transformation investments, which are among the first investments that come to mind when sustainability is mentioned. In 2023, the financing support provided to Green Energy totalled TL 1.9 billion. Vakıf Participation analyses customers' energy investments and prepares repayments in accordance with the project. It also provides free consultancy services to the projects of all customers applying to Vakıf Participation within the scope of green energy. In 2023, Vakıf Participation organised online meetings and on-site visits for more than 500 customers, providing them with information on their planned green investments and energy efficiency. Vakıf Participation colleagues who have the necessary competence in this field continue to organise trainings for branch employees on a regular basis. On the other hand, in order to emphasise the importance of green energy, a monthly "Green Transformation and Public Supports Information" bulletin is prepared and shared within the organisation.

A SPP Project is being developed for the institution's own consumption. Thus, it is planned to provide the energy of both Vakıf Participation branches and headquarters buildings from this facility for a clean and sustainable tomorrow. For financial sustainability, which is another heading of sustainability, support is provided to customers through public incentive and grant programmes. In addition, Vakıf Participation supports local development-oriented projects with Development Agencies. It increases the competitiveness of entrepreneurs and small-scale enterprises through KOSGEB programmes. In this context, it provided financing support exceeding TL 1.4 billion in 2023. With its experience in this field, Vakıf Participation was the sole financing pillar of the Joint Financing programme developed jointly by KOSGEB and 3 Development Agencies.

Vakıf Participation Bank was the main sponsor of the Climate Change and Future of Cities Workshop organised by Konya Karbon A.Ş. in Konya, which has the goal of becoming Turkey's first carbon-neutral province, with the title of Global Protector.

On the other hand, Vakıf Participation aims to provide the financial support required for a successful entrepreneurial journey with special packages created to support women and young entrepreneurs.

In the field of Project Finance, it aims to determine the risk level by calculating the environmental rating of both our customers and our financed projects with environmental and social impact analysis for financing requests of USD 7,500,000 and above in the first stage. Thus, it is aimed to minimise the financial losses that may occur due to environmental and social risks in the projects financed by Vakıf Participation and to take steps regarding the environment and social environment by increasing the environmental awareness of our customers with the action plans to be created.

Foundation Civilisation and Culture

Vakıf Participation, which continues its activities with the vision of becoming a reference institution in the field of participation banking, has a mission to carry the heirlooms of ancestors both to the present day and to transfer them to future generations with the strength it derives from its name and hundreds of years of Foundation culture, in addition to its financial activities.

In this context, it both contributes to the restoration of places that have remained idle and away from their historical duty for years, making them an important part of social life again, and carries out various activities in order to keep the foundation works alive and carry them to the future.

In line with its corporate citizen identity, the restoration of the Mimar Sinan Hamam in Üsküdar was one of the works carried out meticulously by Vakıf Participation. The first exhibition of the place, part of which was converted into a gallery after the restoration, is 'Our Heritage Birdhouses', where the works that won awards and were deemed worthy of exhibition in the 'Generation to Generation Birdhouses Design Competition' organised by Vakıf Participation are exhibited, attracts great interest from visitors.

Vakıf Participation also launched the Foundation Works Inventory Project in order to create an inventory of the foundation works that have survived from the Seljuk and Ottoman periods to the present day and to preserve our cultural heritage. As a result of the studies carried out with expert scientists, Hatay province was chosen as the first stop for the project.

Within the scope of the project, 117 foundation works in Hatay were specially photographed in 2600 frames and collected in the book "Hatay Foundation Works" together with their history.

Unfortunately, many of the artefacts photographed and recorded are currently either in ruins or heavily damaged due to the earthquake disaster. For this reason, the Hatay book, which is of great importance in order to transfer the works built with an admirable understanding and architecture to the future, is also valuable as a guide to the authorities who will carry out restoration works.

The language of the book is prepared in both Turkish and English. In addition, the digital edition (as pdf) of the book can be accessed via vakifkatilim.com.tr.

On the other hand, the photographs taken for the book within the scope of the project were also turned into an exhibition. The exhibition, called "5 February Hatay", was opened at the Mimar Sinan Gallery in Üsküdar in October 2023.

Vakıf Participation, which has considered social benefit as a fundamental element of its strategy since the day it was founded, will intensify similar efforts in the coming period and will continue its efforts to transfer the works of the Foundation and the important works of Anatolian civilisation to the future as a valuable heritage.