Raw Materials, Natural Resources and Waste Management

We accelerated our efforts in our sustainability journey to take more concrete and measurable steps in fundamental environmental areas such as raw material supply, natural resource use, and waste management.

We manage our entire environmental performance based on scientific data and in coordination with our R&D centre and the relevant sub-working groups of our sustainability committee. To this end, we do not limit our focus on efficiency to production processes, therefore continuing our preparations to integrate this focus into our entire value chain.
When it comes to supplying responsible raw materials from local and sustainable sources, we act with a continuous improvement approach and prefer production methods and materials that have lower environmental impact. We also aim to contribute to protecting and efficiently using natural resources by increasing the use of recyclable raw materials. Our goal with this approach is to reduce our environmental impacts through concrete measures, while also increasing resource efficiency.

Raw Materials Supplied

During the supply of raw materials, we prioritise not only product quality, but also the systematic analysis of environmental impacts. In this respect, in 2023, we broadened the scope of our Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) efforts, carried out by the sub-working group of our sustainability committee, to include 12 different product groups.
We completed the process by obtaining Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) certificates for 12 of our product groups in line with our LCA efforts in 2023. These documents demonstrate the environmental impacts of our products throughout their entire life cycle in a transparent manner and are published on national and international platforms.
The EPD approach indicates the environmental performance of each of our products in the form of an independently verified and registered inventory, based on

17 calculation criteria, and a total of 38 environmental impact indicators including the mandatory ones.

The documents obtained as a result of these efforts were made public upon their publication in approved databases in 2024. Therefore, we further strengthen our conscious and responsible production approach by supporting the environmental impacts of our products with concrete data.

Biodiversity

At EAE Group, we took an important step in 2023 to demonstrate our corporate approach to biodiversity conservation after considering the possible impacts of our operations. Guided by the sub-working group of our sustainability committee, we released the Biodiversity Policy in 2024 for adoption across the company.

For EAE Lighting’s Biodiversity Policy please click here.

Our aim with this policy is to ensure that all our stakeholders, including, in particular, our managers and employees, gather around a common understanding and embrace the responsibility for biodiversity conservation. First and foremost in the preparation process, we are getting ready with our efforts to develop a comprehensive conservation approach that takes into account the presence of the flora and fauna in the licensed areas where we have operations. This way, we aim for a more systematic and conscious impact management in accordance with the sustainability of natural assets.

Waste Management

As part of waste management, we work on reduction, reuse and recycling with due diligence.

In 2024, we continued to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills. We reduced our non-hazardous waste compared to the previous year (from 72 metric tons to 69.6 metric tons). As for hazardous waste, the amount of landfill waste decreased to 0.90 metric tons. On the other hand, we kept constant the amount of hazardous waste disposed of by combustion at a level of 0.01 metric tons. We ensure this reduction by increasing the use of recycling practices instead of disposal. This way, we reduce landfill especially in non-hazardous waste, while also reinforcing our resource efficiency and circularity contributions.

In 2024, 97% of our waste was disposed of through recycling. All non-hazardous waste was reused, recycled, or otherwise recovered before disposal. Only 3% of hazardous waste was sent for disposal.

All production plants of EAE Lighting boast Zero Waste Certificates, and our offices and production areas are in LEED Gold-certified green buildings. In the short term, we aim to increase the amount of raw materials obtained through recycling, while in the long term our goal is to get raw materials from completely recycled resources.