As the diblong family, we are aware of the effects of climate change on our world and our environment, therefore we have implemented the diblong Sustainability Projects to leave a livable world and natural resources to future generations. In this context, we carry out measurement and regulatory activities at every step from production in our factories to distribution to our consumers, in order to reduce our carbon footprint and therefore adding value to life.
By protecting the soil with practices that will ensure the continuity of our raw material supply process, we reduce the harmful environmental effects of agriculture and we support sustainable agricultural practices. We look after every piece of ginseng that is extracted from the soil and is the raw material of our products, and we ensure the quality of our raw materials by acting in conscious cooperation with our farmers from the field to the production process.
As a part of our responsibility towards society, our environment and our consumers, we keep the raw materials and materials used in diblong production under control and surveillance, and we have laboratory analyzes done on a regular basis.
In our Diblong production facilities, we aim to become a registered zero waste organization by achieving a net zero carbon footprint by 2030. To achieve this goal, we invest in energy efficiency projects in our production facilities and buildings and evaluate renewable energy supply and installation opportunities to use it in our operations.
By enlarging the windows in our factories, warehouses and offices, we make maximum use of daylight and keep electricity use to a minimum.
In addition, within the scope of our greenhouse gas reduction works in 2022, we have reduced our carbon footprint by 38% compared to the previous year, by supplying our electricity from renewable energy sources and replacing the lighting materials we use with environmentally friendly lighting devices that give more light and consume less energy.
In order to minimize the environmental impact caused by the packaging of our diblong products, we are working on reducing the amount of packaging, increasing reuse and recycling.
The packaging of our diblong products is produced from recyclable packaging, and as of 2020, we have replaced the standard materials that we use in our cargo boxes and packaging with higher quality, environmentally friendly materials.
We focus on less resource consumption and the use of recyclable materials in our packaging processes. We support reuse and recycling works and we design the packaging volume and weight of our products in a way that will generate minimum waste, in order to reduce our environmental impact resulting from packaging processes.
Instead of the thick and voluminous packaging we use in our product packaging, we started to use more innovative and economic packaging styles to protect our quality and transportation safety of our products. In 2022, we reduced the packaging size of the cardboard stands of our diblong 12-pack drinks to stop unnecessary packaging waste.
We show ultimate attention not to use plastic in our diblong products. By continuing to focus on less resource consumption and the use of recyclable materials in our packaging processes, we accelerate our R&D efforts and continue our fight against plastics. We prohibit the use of plastic bags in our factories and offices and we only use bags and carrying materials made from environmentally friendly and recyclable materials.
Thanks to our route optimization and efficient fuel transportation practices, we reduce our environmental impact and work in cooperation with our logistics suppliers.
In order to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions from our shipping and transportation processes, we work with our distribution and logistics business partners to evaluate our transportation options with clean technology.
As of 2022, within the scope of our project to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the shipping and transportation process, we have decided to combine overseas orders and only make the shipments for over a certain amount. With this decision, we aim to reduce our carbon footprint resulting from transportation by at least 30%.
In our factories, warehouses and offices we separate our waste and paper for recycling and we motivate our distributor partners to separate their garbage and dispose of it in zero waste equipment. We monitor the electricity, natural gas, water and paper that we consume in our monthly reports, and we work to keep our consumption at a minimum level by monitoring both the consumption type and the greenhouse gas equivalent of CO2-e.
The internal structure of our head office has been arranged in an environmentally friendly manner, and we have provided energy savings by renewing all our air conditioners, refrigerators and dishwashers we use in all our offices and factories with energy-friendly AA Plus and Prosmart Inverter Compressor features. We reduce our carbon footprint by saving energy with the air conditioning system, energy analyzer application, hourly consumption monitoring and taking positive action when necessary.
We regularly provide in-house training on the consumption habits of our staff and the environmental effects of these habits, and we focus on green consumption.
We continue to raise awareness and develop opportunities for women's empowerment so that gender equality is embraced by all our diblong employees and stakeholders.
Although we are the most successful brand for men in the sector, we encourage our female employees in our teams by saying that professions do not have gender, and we think that our colleagues, where women are the majority, always provide a colourful, creative and strong corporate structure. For this purpose, 80% of our employees in our head office in Istanbul and 64% of our employees in our production facilities are our very valuable women.
For our R&D and diblong production team who are developing our diblong products with their knowledge, expertise and innovative perspectives and transforms the processed raw materials into a brand that our consumers love and trust; plus, for our valuable employees in our Istanbul and London offices who are the cornerstones of our success, we always make sure of their occupational health and safety, harmonious working environments, and we guarantee their peace and well-being.
While forming our diblong teams in accordance with our Diblong's Corporate Governance Principles, we provide opportunities to our employees in all processes, from recruitment to salaries, from the right to participate in vocational trainings to promotion, retirement and all employment conditions.
Respect and importance for animal rights is one of the cornerstones of diblong's product safety philosophy, and none of diblong's products are tested on animals.