Borsa İstanbul participates in Green Business 2015: Sustainable Business Summit

Green Business 2015: Sustainable Business Summit, organized by the Sustainability Academy for the seventh time this year, was held in Istanbul on October 8-9. Sustainability Academy is a member of Borsa İstanbul Sustainability Platform. Green Business Summit is one of the most important sustainability events of Turkey, where Borsa İstanbul executive Vice President Associate Prof. Mustafa K. Yılmaz delivered a keynote presentation entitled “Sustainability in the Business World and Investments”. In his speech, Yılmaz mentioned the positive correlation between sustainability activities and company performance, providing data on the price performance of companies that have been on the agenda recently due to sustainability scandals. Yılmaz underlined the increasing investor interest in sustainability, and also talked about the statistics on the funds flowing to responsible investments.

Emphasizing the influence of exchanges on sustainability, Yılmaz informed the audience about Borsa İstanbul’s leading studies on “Sustainability Index”, “Sustainability Guide for Companies”, and “Borsa İstanbul Sustainability Platform”. Yılmaz also made note of the fact that Borsa İstanbul is a founding member of Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative and a signatory of the United Nations Responsible Investment Principles (UNPRI).

The event attracted more than 800 participants from the public sector, the business world, academic circles and non-governmental organizations. “Borsa İstanbul Sustainability Platform Special Panel” entitled “Sustainability Index” was also organized at Borsa İstanbul’s initiative.

The panel was chaired by Hülya Kurt, Turkish Banks’ Association Sustainability Working Group Chairman and Türkiye Sınai Kalkınma Bankası (TSKB) Engineering Director. Panelists were Borsa İstanbul Index and Data Unit Manager Osman Parlak, Tofaş Türk Corporate Governance and Shareholder Relations Manager Dr. Adil Salepçioğlu, Anadolu Efes Corporate Communications Director Haluk Özdemir and Coca-Cola İçecek Corporate Communications Director Atilla Demir Yerlikaya.