Sabancı University Integrated Manufacturing Technologies Research and Application Center (SU IMC) will attend JEC World 2022, the largest international gathering of the composites industry, which will take place on May 3-5 in Paris.

Sabancı University Integrated Manufacturing Technologies Research and Application Center (SU IMC), a leading industrial-scale research and technology development center in Istanbul / Turkey, is attending the leading international composites show, JEC World, for new collaborations.

SU IMC is an industrial-scale research, technology development, test and application center offering design, analysis, prototyping, manufacturing and process development services in relation to composite materials, additive manufacturing, and robotic manufacturing. All extent of composite and plastic material characterization, mechanical characterization and flammability tests and analysis are carried out in the center. SU IMC has certified with AS9100 aerospace certification and ISO 17025 laboratory test accreditation. SU IMC supports all industries in relation to composite materials, composite part production and additive manufacturing technologies. SU IMC provides an environment of basic and applied research, product development, graduate programs, and lifelong learning programs. It also serves as an open innovation center providing commercialization opportunities for integrated advanced manufacturing technologies as well as ISO 17025 accredited testing for composite and plastic materials.

In collaboration with Kordsa, SU IMC inaugurated the Composite Technology Center of Excellence which is a pioneer and an important example in Turkey with its university-industry business model. The Center aims to serve stakeholders throughout different stages of the R&D cycle, based on the customer’s requirements, starting with R&D, continuing with prototyping, and ending in mass production.

SU IMC’s CEO Devrim Özaydın, Composite Product and Technical Development Manager Ali Cansun, and Business Development Leader Aytaç Subaşı will be present at JEC World, HALL 6, D32, to collaborate and to create new partnerships.

For further information about SU IMC, please visit https://suimc.sabanciuniv.edu/tr

Organized by Sabancı University Nanotechnology Research and Application Center (SUNUM), the Nano Open Webinars continue with a webinar entitled “Supercapacitors and Hybrid Hydrogen-Based Flow Batteries" that will be delivered by Dr. Barun K. Chakrabarti of the University of Warwick at 13:00 on Wednesday, April 27, 2022.

Hybrid hydrogen-based flow batteries (HFBs) are key enablers for the development of reliable large-scale energy storage systems; however, their high cost, limited cycle performance, and incompatibilities associated with the commonly used carbon-based electrodes undermine HFB’s commercial viability.  

Dr. Barun K. Chakrabarti will provide information about electrophoretic deposition (EPD), which is a highly convenient and demonstrated industrial operation for the manufacture of surface coatings, which is used more frequently in recent years to produce energy storage electrodes (notably for lithium-ion batteries, solid-state devices, supercapacitors, and flow batteries)

The Nano Open Webinar will take place at 13:00-14:00 on Wednesday, April 27 on Zoom. The online event link will be shared via e-mail on the day of the event.

The registration link is http://otolab.sabanciuniv.edu/SUNUMActivityRegistrationForm

The webinar will be held in English.

About Dr. Barun K. Chakrabarti:

Dr. Barun K. Chakrabarti is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in WMG at the University of Warwick. He completed his MEng in Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London and a PhD on Regenerative Fuel Cells at the University of Manchester, UK.

His current research focuses on hydrogen-based redox flow batteries, electrospinning, electrochemical regeneration of lithium-ion battery cathodic materials, and electrophoretic deposition of nanomaterials including graphene.

Sakıp Sabancı Center for Turkish Studies at Columbia University held Sakıp Sabancı Lecture on “Antiquities, Museums, Empires”.

Attended by Güler Sabancı, Founding Chair of Sabancı University Board of Trustees, Yusuf Leblebici, President of Sabancı University, who attended online, and Meltem Müftüler-Baç, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, the lecture had Zeynep Çelik, Sakıp Sabancı Visiting Professor of Turkish Studies at Columbia University, as the keynote speaker. The lecture was introduced by Timothy Mitchell, William B Ransford Professor of Middle Eastern Studies at Columbia University.

The lecture raised participants’ level of knowledge and awareness about Turkey through teaching and exchange of ideas.

CDP, the world’s biggest environmental reporting platform, of which Sabancı University Corporate Governance Forum has been the partner in Turkey since 2010, held the 12th Climate Change Virtual Conference and Award Ceremony on Tuesday, April 19, 2022. Garanti BBVA was the main sponsor of the conference, during which CDP Climate Change & Water Program 2021 Turkey Results and CDP Leaders were announced.

The main speaker of the event, Gonzalo Muñoz Abogabir, High Level Climate Action Champion for the 25th Conference of the Parties (COP25), pointed out that he became more and more aware of the fact that for the private sector the cost of not acting about climate change was much higher than the cost of acting. He continued: “I know that companies in Turkey that disclose their environmental data have made remarkable progress this year in terms of Supplier Engagement Rating, which indeed shows that we are on track in terms of the progress we need to make to solve the climate crisis. Companies should not only evaluate their own environmental impact, they should also ensure that their suppliers act about it. We need to make more room for energy transition, electric vehicle technology, sustainable cities, green hydrogen and ammonia, smart agriculture, public and private partnerships, and the circular economy. After a voluntary commitment, we should adapt to the power of money and move from voluntary commitments to regulatory commitments by learning, improving, and disclosing environmental data. This is a very important moment for the private sector to assume climate responsibility and climate solidarity, and for the state to accelerate the cycle of ambition”.

THE MOST FREQUENTLY REPORTED TYPE OF RISK IS ABOUT REGULATIONS

Announcing CDP Climate Change & Water Program 2021 Turkey Report results, İdil Zeynep Dağdemir, CDP Projects Manager of Sabancı University Corporate Governance Forum, noted that the number of companies in Turkey responding to CDP Climate Change Program and Water Program continued to increase in 2021. She continued:

“Board-level oversight of climate-related issues in companies is growing year by year. The companies that include climate-related issues on the agenda at every board meeting increased from 18 companies, representing 33% of the total number of companies last year, to 34, or 53% this year. The rate of climate change-related risks with a direct effect on companies' activities is increasing every year. In 2021, 97% of disclosing companies in Turkey identified risks related to climate change. Almost all companies are now aware of the risks posed by climate change and are developing various precautionary mechanisms. At the point where the business world has reached, the full involvement of corporate governance about the climate crisis has created a new business normal. The most frequently reported type of risk is about regulations (77%). Regulations were the most reported type of risk last year too, with 65% of companies reporting these. This remarkable increase from 65% to 77% can be attributed to the fact that the government’s climate policy was uncertain until the ratification of the Paris Agreement in the Turkish Grand National Assembly in October 2021. For companies, identifying opportunities in the transition to a low-carbon economy is just as important as the identification of risks. The overwhelming majority of companies now set emission reduction targets. The rate of companies that set at least one emission reduction target in 2021 is 91%. The rate of companies that provide detailed information on their emission intensity targets and disclose their progress in these targets increased from 11% to 23%”.

Regarding companies’ risk assessments about water, İdil Zeynep Dağdemir said the following: “Although 98% of companies reporting in Turkey report that they have made a water-related risk assessment, only 27% of companies reported that water has detrimental effects on their operations. The fact that this figure is so low indicates that companies are not addressing all aspects of water safety in their risk assessments”.

TURKEY IS AMONG THE LEADING COUNTRIES IN TERMS OF REPORTING QUALITY

Evaluating the CDP Climate Change and Water Report 2021, Prof. Dr. Melsa Ararat, CDP Turkey Director, said, “Among the 117 countries covered by the CDP, Turkey is among the 20 most transparent countries where companies make the most comprehensive disclosure on climate change and water security. The rate of companies that make disclosures about 80% of 24 indicators in their statements is 33%, which puts Turkey in third place after Japan and Taiwan among 20 countries. This picture, which is a result of the joint efforts of the business world and CDP Turkey, shows that the business world is ready and willing for more brave public policies in the implementation of the Paris Agreement”.

Delivering the opening address of the conference, Ebru Dildar Edin, Executive Vice President of Garanti BBVA, said the following: “We are aware of the critical role of the finance sector in the green transformation journey, and as Garanti BBVA, we will continue to support this transformation with determination, regardless of the customer segment, in our capacity as a financing institution and our role as a consultant”. She continued: “We will further increase our efforts for the development of the local sustainable finance market in the coming days not only for our customers, but also for all our stakeholders. Last year, as an institution, we not only made disclosures for indices, but also strengthened our commitment to these processes with the Garanti BBVA Climate Index, which was implemented for the first time in Turkey by a bank with a sustainability focus. With this index, which we implement in cooperation with Borsa İstanbul and CDP Turkey, of which Sabancı University Corporate Governance Forum is the partner in Turkey, we aim to encourage companies to develop the sustainable finance market and increase their transparency regarding climate risks and opportunities. We believe that, thanks to this index, Turkey's companies that are resilient to climate change, aiming to reduce and finally eliminate emissions in accordance with the targets predicted by science, will get on international institutional investors’ radar and will be instrumental in attracting additional foreign investment to Turkey. As one of the first institutions to respond to the call to the business world for transparency by CDP Turkey, which started its activities under the umbrella of Sabancı University Corporate Governance Forum, I would like to thank all companies that responded to the CDP and demonstrated their transparency and determination in the fight against climate change. I congratulate our leading companies and hope that this positive effect will expand in the coming years”.

During his closing speech at the conference, Dr. Ata Can Bertay, Director of Sabancı University Corporate Governance Forum, highlighted that Turkey was one of the prominent countries within the CDP in terms of reporting, adding that the clear climate change policies introduced by the Paris Agreement would increase the number of companies reporting to the CDP in Turkey. Dr. Bertay urged all companies in Turkey to make disclosures in the coming years and stated that they were ready to guide them together with Sabancı University CGF and CDP.

AWARD-WINNING COMPANIES WERE ANNOUNCED

The panel entitled “The End of Uncertainty in Public Policies and the New Business Normal” organized in the framework of the conference was moderated by Prof. Dr. Volkan Ş. Ediger, Director of the Center for Energy and Sustainable Development at Kadir Has University. Panel participants included Sonya Bhonsle, Global Head of Value Chains & Regional Director at CDP, Harry Boyd-Carpenter, EBRD’s Managing Director for Climate Strategies, Seray İmer, Sustainable Finance Manager at Garanti BBVA, and Cevdet Alemdar, TÜSİAD’s Chair of Energy, Environment, and Climate Change Roundtable, and Board Member.

11 companies in Turkey receiving an ‘A-’ score in the Climate Change and Water categories managed to be named on the CDP Turkey Leaders list. In 2020, 16 companies managed to do so. Within the framework of its ‘Supplier Engagement Rating’ (SER), CDP provides a rating for how effectively companies are engaging their suppliers on climate change. In Turkey, 8 companies were assigned an ‘A’ score and ranked among global leaders in the SER category.

On the occasion of the event, the award-winning companies were announced. In the water category, Eti Soda, Kordsa Teknik Tekstil and Tekfen Holding made the CDP Global A-list. In addition, Arçelik, Brisa Bridgestone, Kordsa Teknik Tekstil, Tekfen Holding and Eti Soda were included in the CDP Climate Change Program Turkey Leaders. In the CDP Water Program, Aksa Akrilik Kimya, Arçelik, Aselsan, Brisa Bridgestone, Coca-Cola, and Yapı Kredi Bank became Turkey Leaders.

Arçelik, Brisa Bridgestone, Coca-Cola, Ekol Lojistik, Ekoten Tekstil, Eti Soda, Korsa Teknik Tekstil and Osmangazi Elektrik Dağıtım were assigned an ‘A’ score and became Supplier Engagement Rating Global Leaders.

You can reach the CDP Climate Change & Water Program 2021 Turkey Results report from this link .

Organized by Sabancı University Nanotechnology Research and Application Center (SUNUM), Nano Open Seminar Series continues with Dr. Aysun Altan's seminar entitled "Limitations and Opportunities in Epoxy, Polyurethane and Polyurea Systems", which will be held at 11:00 on Wednesday, April 20, 2022.

Limitations and opportunities in epoxy, polyurethane and polyurea systems. It is known that the lockdown in raw material production and price increases during the Covid 19 period created an industrial crisis. In this environment, the development and the use of bio-based raw materials has started to get attention of manufacturers. Manufacturers of epoxy, polyurethane and polyurea systems, which have very wide area of applications, are among the groups most affected by this crisis. Dr. Aysun Altan will give information about the basic features of these systems, common areas of use and the opportunities to use bio-based raw materials in these systems.

For registration: http://otolab.sabanciuniv.edu/SUNUMActivityRegistrationForm

About Dr. Aysun Altan

Aysun Altan graduated from Boğaziçi University, Teaching Chemistry Department with a degree of Integrated BSc and MSc. After earning her PhD from University of Florida, Chemistry Department, she worked at Ohio University as a post-doctoral researcher. Following her academic studies, she worked as R & D Manager at AB - Schomburg Yapı Kimyasalları, Huntsman-Ema Kimya Sistemleri and Caran Kimya. Altan has joined SUNUM in April 2022 and she conducts research on reactive polymers.

The journal article entitled “On the Effect of the Respiratory Droplet Generation Condition on COVID-19 Transmission” by Ali Hosseinpour Shafaghi, PhD student in mechatronics engineering program of Sabancı University Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences (FENS), was published in the Fluids journal, one of the significant journals in the field of fluid mechanics. Attracting a lot of attention, the article was selected as an Editor’s Choice due to the citations it received within a short period of time.

Co-authored by Morteza Ghorbani, researcher at Sabancı University Center of Excellence for Functional Surfaces and Interfaces (EFSUN) and Sabancı University Nanotechnology Research and Application Center (SUNUM), Ali Koşar, FENS faculty member, SUNUM Distinguished Researcher and EFSUN Co-Director, and Farzad Rokhsar Talabazar, FENS Mechatronics Engineering PhD student, the article can be accessed from  this link. The study covered by the article is a nice example of the cross-disciplinary work carried out at EFSUN.

Sabancı University Istanbul International Center for Energy and Climate (IICEC) has released the twenty-sixth issue of IICEC Energy Market Newsletter.

Please click to read IICEC Energy Market Newsletter

CDP, the world’s biggest environmental reporting platform, of which Sabancı University Corporate Governance Forum has been the partner in Turkey since 2010, will hold the 12^th Climate Change Virtual Conference and Award Ceremony on Tuesday, April 19.

Garanti BBVA is the main sponsor of the conference during which CDP Turkey’s work in the past year will be presented. The conference will start with the opening speeches of Ebru Dildar Edin, Executive Vice President of Garanti BBVA, and Paul Dickinson, Co-Founder and Executive Chair of CDP.

Gonzalo Muñoz, High Level Climate Action Champion for the 25^th Conference of the Parties (COP25) will be the main speaker of the event. Following the presentations about CDP Turkey’s 2021 results, a panel entitled “The End of Uncertainty in Public Policies and the New Business Normal” will be held. The conference will end after CDP Award Ceremony and closing speeches.

• DATE:  Tuesday, April 19, 2022
• REGISTRATION:  https://global.6connex.eu/event/cdpturkey/login
• TIME: 15.00 – 17.30

The CDP Turkey 12^th Climate Change Virtual Conference and Award Ceremony Program

15:00 – 15:15 Opening Speeches

                                Ebru Dildar Edin, Executive Vice President, Garanti BBVA

                                Paul Dickinson, Co-Founder and Executive Chair, CDP

15:15 – 15:30  Keynote Speaker

Gonzalo Muñoz, High Level Climate Action Champions for the 25^th Conference of the Parties (COP25) in Chile

15:30 – 15.45 Interpretation of CDP Climate Change and Water Report 2021

Prof. Dr. Melsa Ararat, CDP Turkey Director

15.45 – 16:00 CDP Climate Change and Water Report 2021 Results

İdil Zeynep Dağdemir, CDP Projects Manager, Sabancı University Corporate Governance Forum

16:00 – 17:00 Panel: The End of Uncertainty in Public Policies and the New Business Normal

Moderator: Prof. Dr. Volkan Ş. Ediger, Director of the Center for Energy and Sustainable Development, Kadir Has University

• Sonya Bhonsle, Global Head of Value Chains & Regional Director, CDP
• Harry Boyd-Carpenter, Managing Director, Climate Strategies, EBRD 
• Seray İmer, Sustainable Finance Manager, Garanti BBVA
• Cevdet Alemdar, Chair of Energy, Environment, and Climate Change Roundtable, Board Member, TÜSİAD

17:00– 17:15 CDP Turkey 2021 Award Ceremony

17:15 – 17:20 Closing Speech

Dr. Ata Can Bertay, Director, Sabancı University Corporate Governance Forum

Works by David Hockney, considered one of the most influential and creative artists of our time, will be coming to Turkey for the first time as part of the exhibition titled The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020.

The Sakıp Sabancı Museum, in collaboration with Akbank, will host The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020 by David Hockney, who is one of the most inspiring artists of the 20^th and 21st centuries. The Sakıp Sabancı Museum in Istanbul will be the third museum venue for the exhibition, which was previously shown at the Royal Academy in London and Bozar in Brussels.

Hockney, who has been experimenting with new technologies and different methods of making art throughout his career, began to draw on an iPhone and iPad in the early 2000s. This exhibition, a culmination of this particular technological quest, includes 116 of the artist's iPad paintings, the subject of which heralds the arrival of spring. These were all executed in Normandy in 2020, during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In these ‘paintings’, Hockney depicts a landscape filled with fruit trees, bushes, flower beds, ponds and rivers, fields, and distant hills, capturing the annual cycle of spring from bare trees to buds, flowers, and abundant green foliage. The exhibition celebrates the season from beginning to end, reminding us of the miracles of the natural world and its constant renewal.

The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020 will be at the Sakıp Sabancı Museum between 11 May – 29 July, with the support of Akbank.

The Multi-Entry Tickets which are currently on sale, will also be valid for visits to The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020.

Image Credit: No. 219, 20th April 2020, iPad painting, © David Hockney

Sabancı University International Relations Office (IRO) visited several leading high schools in Baku, Azerbaijan in the period 30 March-04 April 2022 and attended the Turkish Universities Education Fair, held on 3rd of April 2022 in Hilton Baku.

Our alumnus Musa Baghirov (BA in Management, 2022) cooperated with IRO team by joining this education fair and helped answer prospective students’ questions about studying at Sabancı University and living in Turkey.

Other SU alumni, Vusala Aghayeva (BA in Management, 2021) and Ali Ismayilov (BA in Management, 2017) also cooperated with IRO team during their Azerbaijan visit by giving interviews about their educational experience as SU undergraduate students. The alumni also got together in House Café Baku.