Community Engagement
Equal access to good education for all | Additional needs school near Eti Soda, Turkey
Creating sustainable communities
Grape harvesting at Eti Soda vineyard, Turkey
Protecting and preserving the environment
Vineyards near Eti Soda, Turkey
Promoting economic growth
Irrigation system, Çakıloba village, Eti
Our communities
We consider ourselves a part of the communities in which we operate and, by supporting our local communities, we believe we create long-term value for our communities and for our business.
Our approach to community engagement focuses on five main areas:
During 2022, we supported a diverse range of community projects in Türkiye and the UK with our time, capabilities and total direct financial and charitable contributions of around $1.1 million.
Our aim is to maintain and increase our community engagement over time, including in US as we expand our operations in Wyoming.
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Building a sustainable future
Both Eti Soda and Kazan Soda are situated within agricultural communities and therefore agriculture has been a focus of our community projects for several years.
Eti Soda has increased the availability of agricultural irrigation water by funding the development of irrigation systems and by providing water to the nearby villages of Başören, Bağözü and Çakıloba.
Prior to the establishment of the irrigation system, fields were watered using groundwater from draw wells, which was inefficient and significantly reduced groundwater availability.
Eti Soda now provides water from the Sarıyar dam, out of the water quota that has been set for Eti Soda by the government, increasing the efficiency of agricultural water use and improving crop yields.
Environment and nature
In 2016, Kazan Soda initiated a project focusing on preserving biodiversity in the area surrounding our production plant.
The project identified six endemic plants which required specific protection plans, as a result we:
Created an endemic plant conservation area, covering approximately 10,000m2.
The seeds of the six endemic plants were also sent to the Ankara Genetic Seed Bank to ensure their long-term preservation.
In 2022, we constructed an information office within the conservation area and started working with local schools to educate them on the importance of biodiversity and protecting endemic species.
Read more about Kazan Soda's Biodiversity Conservation and Monitoring Project:
Image: Endemic plant conservation area Kazan Soda
Youth and education
Education underpins the long-term prosperity and sustainability of communities. We aim to do our part by providing educational support and opportunities for local people.
Our projects include:
A traineeship and internship programme for engineering students from technical high schools and universities.
Scholarships for fifty-five university students from the Beypazarı region, near Eti Soda and twenty-four university students from the Kazan region.
In 2017, we opened a school which specifically caters to the needs of individuals with disabilities and special educational needs.
Community support
Sport often sits at the heart of the communities in which we operate and provides a strong medium for community engagement.
We support a number of sports-centric community initiatives in Türkiye and in the UK.
We chose to partner with the WRU because the UK is where we are headquartered and we wanted to make a real and lasting impact on a part of the UK that faces significant socio-economic challenges, with a real need for community-based support in the large concentration of poorer communities that are located in that region.
Read more about our 'Fit, Fed, Fun' partnership initiative:
supported in 2022
Women's empowerment
Empowering women by developing employment opportunities is central to our community engagement strategy.
At Eti Soda:
In 2020, established the greenhouse project focused on creating employment opportunities for local women in agriculture.
The project's heat is sourced from waste water from Eti Soda and is also supplied with electricity from the plant.
The greenhouse is staffed exclusively by women.
At Kazan Soda:
Developed a beekeeping initiative, providing support to local women who were primarily involved in the agriculture sector.
