With a shared mission to harness the full potential of energy efficiency in Türkiye’s industrial landscape, Özyeğin University’s Center for Energy, Environment and Economy (CEEE/EÇEM) and the Turkish Industry and Business Association (TÜSİAD) have joined forces for the project ‘Türkiye’s ’ Energy Efficiency Outlook in Industry’. The project’s details and the overall framework of energy efficiency policies in Türkiye were presented during the launch meeting held on September 13, 2023, at the TÜSİAD Headquarters.

Dr. Abdullah Buğrahan Karaveli, Advisor to the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, also attended the meeting, and the keynote speech was delivered online by Dr. Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA). Among the esteemed speakers who opened the event were Prof. Dr. Tanju Erdem, the Vice Rector for Academic Affairs at Özyeğin University, Orhan Turan, President of the TÜSİAD Board of Directors, and Cevdet Alemdar, a member of the TÜSİAD Board of Directors who also chairs the Energy, Environment, and Climate Change Roundtable.

During his address, Prof. Dr. Tanju Erdem, one of the distinguished opening speakers at the event, made the following statements: “We established the Sustainability Platform at our university to propel our research, education, and knowledge transfer endeavors into the multidisciplinary and even transdisciplinary dimensions that are essential for a “better world.” The foundations of our collaboration with TÜSİAD were laid in 2017 when the ‘Sustainable Development Forum’ was launched as a part of this platform. The most recent example of this collaboration is the ”Türkiye’s ’ Energy Efficiency Outlook in Industry” project, which we are launching today. This project will be undertaken jointly by TÜSİAD and the Center for Energy, Environment and Economy (CEEE/EÇEM), our university’s first center of Research and Development founded in 2009. I would like to take this opportunity to extend my heartfelt thanks to Prof. M. Pinar Mengüç, the Founding Director of CEEE/EÇEM, for his invaluable contributions to this distinguished project, and for the significant impact he has had on both our university and society through the activities of the CEEE. Through this project, we are excited to showcase our university’s strong commitment to collaborations with external stakeholders and our unwavering enthusiasm for implementing high-impact, scientific projects through such collaborations with the ultimate goal of creating a better world.”

During the meeting, Prof. Dr. M. Pınar Mengüç, Director of the Center for Energy, Environment and Economy at Özyeğin University, and Fatih Memiş, President of the TÜSİAD Energy Efficiency Task Force, also delivered a presentation about the project. Meanwhile, Prof. Mengüç highlighted the academic significance of the subject in a panel titled ‘Strengthening the Energy Efficiency Ecosystem in Turkey,’ moderated by Mr. Onur Ünlü, Vice President at TÜRKONFED and President of the Board of Directors at the Energy Efficiency and Management Association. The panel also featured Dr. Bilal Düzgün, Deputy Head of the Energy and Environment Department at the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, Dr. Oğuz Can, President of the Energy Efficiency Association, and Hakkı Buyruk, Coordinator of International Projects at ESCON.

The project, conducted in partnership between Özyeğin University’s CEEE/EÇEM and TÜSİAD, aims to achieve the following objectives:

• Raising awareness about energy efficiency to the highest level.
• Benchmarking the energy efficiency and saving potential in leading sectors of the Turkish industry with international references.
• Contributing to the process from energy saving to energy efficiency through a series of guides to be prepared.