Due to the semester break, we came to my hometown, Izmir, as a family, on Sunday. Thus, while I was relieving my mother's longing for grandchildren and children, whom I had not seen since the end of summer, I also made a change for myself by working remotely.
Coming to Izmir is also a good opportunity to reminisce and meet friends. For this reason, I made a program on Tuesday evening with my ex-manager and my graduate friend in Karşıyaka, where I lived while I was in İzmir, and I took my son Okan after work and set off. My wife had already gone to Karşıyaka in the afternoon and met with her friend, and when I finished my work, father and son got into the car and got involved in the evening traffic.
There was a lot of traffic on the Yeşildere road, and our radio was on. In the radio program we listened to, it was mentioned that we may encounter the problem of thirst and drought in the summer since there is almost no rain in the winter months and the probability of sufficient rain and snowfall in the coming days is low. Thereupon, I told Okan that we do not take diligent care of the world, and that in case of thirst, we will have difficulties in the summer. We talked about how the decrease in the availability of water, the source of life, will affect my life. Then the traffic started to flow, I concentrated on the road, there was silence for a while. Then, when one of Okan's favorite songs was played on the radio, I hung up on Okan, saying "you don't accompany me". He broke his silence by saying "I cried dad".
Okan cried silently in the back seat, thinking that we are responsible for this situation with what happened to our world, what we did and did not do, and that we will all be punished for this responsibility in the coming period. Okan asked “What can we do now?” as he wiped his eyes with a napkin. I said,“we can take responsibility, protect nature, protect natural resources, set an example for our environment, and raise awareness.” After saying these things at first, I could not speak any more. The fact that a 9-year-old boy was upset and worried about these “big” issues was almost likedirectly hitting the wall for me.
Then we parked the car in the parking lot of the shopping mall where we were going to meet with my wife and friends and got out of the car. While Okan was entering the mall with a used napkin in his hand, he saw the trash cans. One read "recyclable waste" and the other read "all other waste". “Can I dispose of the napkin in recyclable waste?” He said, “Of course,” I said, and after he threw, we moved on.
As I was writing these lines the next day, I thought that even though it was late for yesterday, we still have things to do for today and tomorrow, and if we all do our part, we can leave a sustainable world for our children and grandchildren to live in. I amkicking off this day with this awareness, what about you?
I will share with you my
company's (Philip Morris International - PMI) contribution to sustainability,
nature, and the environment through two photos with two olive trees and two
people. This is my story, but I am sure many Philip Morris Turkey employees
have similar stories to mine. Our company does not only lead our sustainability
journey today with its environmental awareness, but this approach was also like
this yesterday, and it will continue to be so in the future with our commitment
and dedication.
I was working for PhilSA
in 2014, the year that I became a father, and that summer all employees were
given one olive tree seedling. One of my friends had not had the opportunity to
plant, so he handed over his seedling to me as well. I went home with two seedlings
in the service bus and looked after them on the balcony until the end of the
week, and at the weekend I planted them in the garden of our summer house in
Seferihisar, district of Izmir. The seedlings
that I gave the life water to, dreaming of getting olives in the future, hugged
the soil and life tightly, loved their place, started to rise, and get
stronger.
Those two seedlings I
planted side by side turned 2 years old with my son when the dates showed 2016.
It made me very happy to see them grow up together, to meet my son Okan's love
of nature, to see him help me while watering the trees, and to develop
environmental awareness. Besides, I was so proud; the company I worked for was
contributing to nature and I was seeing the positive effects of this. Additionally,
another gift from Philip Morris Turkey, a walnut tree seedling came in front of
our olive trees that summer, and this time I started to imagine if it would
give walnuts in the future. That summer, my son and I had a souvenir photo
taken in front of our trees.
In this summer of 2021,
when we are burning inside due to the fires in our country, we once again
remembered the value of what we have while doing our part in the reforestation
of the damaged areas. That's why my son and I took a pose in front of our olive
trees, who turned 7 this year. While my son was growing up with our trees, I
felt that our future was much more sustainable and secure with individuals who
are environmentally conscious and have developed love of trees and forests.
And once again I said,
“I'm glad I'm a PMI employee”. While my company always uses resources in the
best way for nature-friendly, environmentally friendly, and sustainable, it
also includes its employees, whom it considers as its stakeholders, in these
policies and enables us to walk towards the goal “together”. That's why, as a PMI
employee, I'm on the sustainability journey of my environmentally conscious
company, and I'm ready to support this journey to add value.
Bir
şeyler yazarken aldığım keyif benim için gerçekten çok büyük. Bir de o
yazdıklarım birilerine ulaşıyorsa ve dokunuyorsa, işte o da apayrı bir keyif
oluyor. Geçtiğimiz haftasonu PMI’ın sürdürülebilirlik raporunu okumuştum.
Raporun içindeki Yunanistan örneği hoşuma gidince bunun üzerine bir şeyler
yazıp Medium’da paylaşmıştım.
Dün
akşam bu içerikle ilgili beni mutlu eden bir mail aldım:
Kaleme
aldığım yazı Medium’un dünya ve çevre bölümlerinde ana sayfadan yayımlanacağını
ilettikleri bu mai sonrasında içeriğin ilgili bölümlerin ön sayfasında olduğunu
gördüm. Sonrasında da yüksek okunma sayısını izleyince oldukça mutlu oldum.
Bakalım sonraki
içeriklerimde de bu başarıyı elde edebilecek miyim? Ne olursa olsun, keyif
almak için yazmaya devam edeceğim.
Philip Morris
International (PMI) is moving towards a smoke-free future – one without
cigarettes. PMI and its employees believe that something needs to start today
to accelerate the arrival of an unsmoked world. That’s why the company wants
smokers, nonsmokers and unsmokers to join them in making this conversation a
global success and to help them grow a community of people who will help bring
about a truly smoke-free future. So PMI started a campaign and called it ‘Year
of Unsmoke’. It’s the global campaign to rid smoke from your life, the lives of
your loved ones, and generally the world.
The ‘Year of
Unsmoke’ is PMI’s urgent call to action to smokers, nonsmokers, regulators and
agents of change across the world to drive a better future for the world’s 1.1
billion smokers and their families, loved ones and communities.
As PMI moves
from cigarettes to smoke-free alternatives, its journey is also about
transitioning to becoming a global sustainability leader. Recently, PMI has
announced its sustainability report for 2018. This is the fourth Sustainability
Report details the company’s sustainability strategy, which covers its
products, operations and value chain, and is an integral part of PMI’s mission
to unsmoke the world. It has four pillars:
Transforming business
Driving operational excellence
Managing social impact
Reducing environmental footprint
The report
publication is part of the company’s commitment to transparency. As PMI moves
from cigarettes to smoke-free alternatives, its journey is also about
transitioning to becoming a global sustainability leader.
André
Calantzopoulos, CEO of PMI, says it is not enough to focus on product alone
“Our sustainability ambition extends to the way we operate, manage our social
impact, and reduce our environmental footprint. Society’s expectations of
businesses are changing, and we must play our part in addressing global
challenges”.
For PMI,
sustainability means creating long term value while minimizing the negative
externalities associated with products, operations and value chain.
In 2018
Sustainability Report of PMI, a case study is shared which identifies the
transformation to smoke-free future in Greek affiliate (Papstratos) and its
impact on social and economic structure of Greece. This case is an important
example of how PMI manages its social impact.
Transformers in Greece
Imagine for a
moment that you are a machine operator in PMI’s factory in Greece, it is 2016
and you are told the factory is converting to deliver new products that will
contribute to a smoke-free future. Fast-forward to 2018 – transformation is
happening everywhere. Not just in factories but also in communications, commercial,
and external affairs functions, for example. We are proud to face the
challenges, and Papastratos, our Greek affiliate, is an exemplary story.
“The only
constant is our values, which have been our guiding light since Papastratos was
founded some 87 years ago,” says the managing director Christos Harpantidis.
So, once we had explained to employees why a transformation is taking place,
most understood it to be a logical step forward. And, while change is not free
of challenge, Papastratos recorded no serious negative economic impact for
staff through 2016–2018. Ultimately, staff motivation was secured because PMI
is intensifying the social dimension of its corporate purpose.
Our staff “get
it.” And there is a domino effect as neighboring teams, in Bulgaria for
example, gear up for growth in IQOS sales. But what caught our attention was
that our agility at work was further primed by the long-standing
government-debt crisis. People are willing to adapt. And while trust in
business during the tough times has faded, Papastratos is recognized as a role
model for rebuilding it. As Christos says, “People here see the transformation
as an amazing period of their lives, and other companies in Greece can’t
believe how fast we are moving.”
IQOS in Greece
is already used by 150,000 people and 400 jobs are being created there in the
smoke-free category. Core internal tasks for us in Greece have included
achieving cultural and behavioral change, installing crossfunctional “enabler”
teams, training over 500 people on new standards and machinery. Alongside that,
we are installing new customer care and digital services, operating retail IQOS
stores and e-commerce, expanding the sales car fleet, amending supply chain
management processes, and engaging on our transformation vision with new
external stakeholders, such as scientists and physicians.
Against this
backdrop, we have assessed in 2017 the socio-economic impact of our business in
Greece. Our findings showed that Papastratos contributed 2.2% to the Greek
state revenues, with an economic value added (EVA) of EUR 157 million (0.1% of
Greek GDP). For every EUR 1 of EVA by Papastratos, EUR 2.30 is added to the
Greek economy, an increase of 66.7% on 2016. Additionally, every job at
Papastratos indirectly supports 2.5 jobs in the overall Greek economy, thus
supporting the income of 7,130 Greek citizens. Equally significant is the
social impact of the Corporate Responsibility Plan, which invested more than
EUR 2.2 million during 2009–2017 and aims to provide the most vulnerable social
groups with relief from the economic crisis, while creating new economic
prospects, empowering women, facilitating access to education, and supporting
Greek tobacco growers.
Author's note:
It is great to
see PMI’s, a tobacco company, programs focus on promoting employment and decent
work to improve the financial and economic security of the socially vulnerable
individuals and families. There are many other cases
stated in the Sustainability Report of PMI. If you are interested, you may read
it from here:
Philip Morris International Inc. joined the United Nations Global
Compact (UNGC) in 2015. By doing so PMI committed to embed its Ten Principles
into the strategy, culture and daily work of the company, and I am pleased to work
for this company which provides such a commitment. On
September 12, PMI published its sustainability report, communicating its
progress in respect to the United Nations Global Compact Principles.
Besides, as a Turkish citizen, it is nice to hear an example case
from Turkey in terms of strengthening our sustainability fundamentals in this report.
An example of “farm economics, mechanization and innovation” comes
from Turkey. In Turkey’s oriental tobacco growing, labor is not only the main
cost, but it is also the bottleneck limiting the volume that each farmer can
produce, due to the labor intensive preparation of the small Oriental leaves
for curing. The “vento” machine technology allows farmers to harvest Oriental
tobacco leaves in bulk by enabling the curing preparation in a cotton net tube
instead of the traditional practices whereby tobacco leaves need to be
carefully aligned during harvesting so they can be individually sown on a
string for curing.
These machines enable the farmer to make an estimated labor saving
of 25 labor days/ha and allows farmers to harvest larger volumes, thereby
significantly increasing income. With PMI’s technical and financial support,
around 1,700 farmers, representing 27% of PMI’s volume sourced in Turkey, were
using “vento” machines by the end of 2016. In 2017, we expect to source over
40% of our tobacco in Turkey to be cured using this technology.
As a PM Turkey employee, I proudly share the full report:
