As a member of Yaşar Group, which considers sustainability as an important complement to its corporate strategy with its economic, social and environmental dimensions; we contribute to environmental sustainability with the projects such as reducing carbon emissions and water footprints, economic sustainability with our brands and products, and corporate social responsibility activities including education, sports, culture and art projects for the development of society in terms of social sustainability. Within the framework of the Sustainable Development Policy, targets and strategies are determined at the level of the Board of Directors and the implementation of these strategies is ensured by the Senior Management. The Sustainable Development Committee, which has been working since 2010, coordinates sustainability activities according to the determined priorities.
Our strategy has been established within the scope of the main headings of “Caring for Our Business”, “Caring for Our Society”, “Caring for Our Employees”, “Caring for Our Business Partners” and “Caring for Our Environment”.
We Care For Our Business
Viking Paper, the company of the firsts in its sector, continues to work to make a difference in the tissue paper industry with its extensive product portfolio that will respond to consumer expectations in line with the both global and local trends.
Viking Paper was established in 1969 in İzmir - Aliağa as Turkey's "first private sector paper factory". The firm commenced operations with an initial annual production capacity of 13.500 tons of single-glazed wrapping, printing, and laminating paper in 1971. Then, in 1982, the growth of Viking Paper started to accelerate after joining Yaşar Group and the company stepped into the cleaning paper industry in 1996. With its strong brands and more than 80 products, Viking Paper continues its activities with an annual production capacity of 45,800 tons.
As an environment and human-oriented responsible manufacturer, Viking Paper monitors and records it’s all business stages from order to the final consumption, each step according to defined and designed methods and instructions. The success Viking Paper has achieved in audits with the international certification bodies allows it to stand out from its competitors and increase the trust of the customers to the company.
We Care For Our Employees
Believing that growth and productivity would increase thanks to its qualified human resources, Viking Paper supports development of its employees with the personal and professional trainings.
Viking Paper organizes various training activities to ensure employee satisfaction and loyalty, and encourages its employees to participate these activities for their personal and professional growth. The company participates in projects supporting the improvement of its employees of all levels, from the entry level to the senior management, through the programs such as talent management, development and mentoring carried out within the group.
Viking Paper continues its efforts to prepare a Corporate Human Rights and Employee Rights Policy, in which full compliance within the legal framework and legislation regulating human rights and working life in Turkey is committed, as well as internationally valid principles such as Universal Declaration of Human Rights, United Nations Global Compact, United Nations Women's Empowerment Principles and ILO Conventions. Right after the preparation of the policy, it is aimed to spread the document to all business partners.
At Viking Paper, maximum attention is paid to human rights, equality, career development, occupational health and safety with corporate standards and practices. The Occupational Health and Safety Policy, created with the philosophy that occupational health and safety can be ensured not only by physical protection equipment, but also by supporting employees' personal and social activity and development, is shared with all employees.
Continuous trainings are organized in order to raise awareness and inform employees about occupational health and safety. Viking Paper which carried out its operations with an average of 205 employees in 2021, provided its employees with a 3,823 hours of training on occupational safety, personal development and vocational training throughout the year. The company manages the occupational health and safety process in compliance with the Occupational Health and Safety Law No. 6331 and related regulations, and ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management System requirements.
Viking Paper, which prepared research reports on work accidents and near misses in 2021, briefed the employees on the details of work accidents and prevention principles. Also, “Practical Casualty Trainings” were given to the employees who had a work accident.
We Care For Our Community
Consumer/Customer Health and Safety
Documenting its competence and quality in every field from production process to final consumption, Viking Paper provides competitive advantage with its registered health and hygiene criteria.
As a member of Yaşar Group, which focuses on the principle of 'adding value to life', Viking Paper operates in a structure that acts in accordance with the laws and regulations, is supervised by authorized institutions and organizations, complies with the standards required by the industry, and always puts the health of consumers and customers first.
As a result of the audits carried out by German certification body DQS at the end of 2016, Viking Paper was awarded the Hygienic Product-GC MARK for the first time in its sector. With this document, it has been confirmed that our products have been subjected to risk analysis and do not carry any risk in terms of product safety. It is also proven that our products have been freed from relevant risks and manufactured under the required conditions.
Consumer/Customer Satisfaction and Ethical Marketing
Viking Paper that offers solutions that meet the expectations of consumers by closely monitoring the trends in the sector proceeds to add convenience, hygiene and value to life thanks to its quality products and strong distribution network. Considering customer and consumer satisfaction surveys and stakeholder feedback as an important tool, Viking Paper takes steady steps towards perfecting its products and services. In 2018, the firm started to receive and evaluate stakeholder feedback through customer and consumer surveys, complaint and comment mechanisms, and took remedial actions.
Corporate Social Responsibility
Aiming to add value and build awareness in all areas of life with its human and environment-oriented perspective, Viking Paper strives to contribute the development of society and a sustainable future.
As part of its corporate social responsibility efforts, Viking Paper provided scholarships to 8 students through Yaşar Education and Culture Foundation in 2018.
Within the scope of vocational training, a total of 48 high school and university students were offered internship opportunities. In addition, within the frame of the Vocational High School Coaches Program with the Private Sector Volunteers Association, a group coaching project was carried out for the 10th and 11th grade vocational high school students. Viking Paper employee coaches, gathered with the same student group at least 12 times over the course of two years, implemented different personal development meetings. Thus, while supporting socialization and development of the students, they also touched the lives of them as role models.
Developing effective solutions to environmental problems, Viking Paper also carries out different projects in the field of corporate social responsibility. In 2018, cleaning paper products were donated to the Yaşar Education and Culture Foundation Special Education Application Center in Güzelbahçe Yelki, the School for Children with Disabilities in Aliağa, and the Educational Volunteers Foundation of Turkey Çiğli Education Park.
Adopting the principle of realizing social responsibility projects in different fields to contribute to the creation of a social and developed society with high awareness, Viking Paper continues its efforts. Focusing on adding value to the lives of not only its employees but also other people who can be reached with the trainings. "Viking Paper, We Live Equal [Viking Kağıt Eşit Yaşar’ız]" committee organized online seminars in 2021. In this context, seminars on "Nutrition and Dietetics", "Women's Rights" and "Social Courtesy in Communication" were held throughout the year.
Supporting the creation of a conscious, social and developed society with its studies, the company provided scholarships to students through the Yaşar Education and Culture Foundation, and offered internship opportunities to 13 university students in 2021.
Viking Paper also supports tree planting projects within the scope of its corporate social responsibility activities. In this context, the Tree Planting Project on behalf of Viking Paper employees which was carried out through the Aegean Forest Foundation continued in 2021 as well.
We Care For Our Business Partners
Long-term collaboration with the suppliers of Viking Paper stand out as one of the building blocks of a sustainable business model. Procurement Department of the company continues its activities by adopting the principle of environmental sensitivity to provide packaging, raw materials, auxiliary chemicals, materials and fixtures, as well as necessary services from internal and external suppliers in the desired time, quantity and quality in accordance with the determined needs.
Establishing a win-win cooperation with packaging and chemical material suppliers, the company determines its potential partners by evaluating them according to quality, delivery, and price-performance criteria.
Cellulose, which is the raw material of paper, is imported from various countries such as Finland, Sweden, North America, Russia, Spain, Portugal, Brazil and Chile, since it is not produced in Turkey. Although competitiveness of the paper industry is adversely affected by this situation, Viking Paper carries a competitive advantage with its alternative raw material strategy. Contributing to the environment and economy by using cellulose pulp obtained from scrap paper in its production, Viking Paper supports recycling and sustainability with its responsible manufacturer identity.
Following the developments in the sector closely, Viking Paper exchanges the opinions with its suppliers on new chemicals, packaging designs and technical developments. Production trials are carried out for materials deemed suitable as a result of the evaluations. Efficient cost management and optimization of operational expenses are aimed in the field of procurement.
We Care For Our Environment
While performing our activities, we work with an approach based on reducing the impact on nature, improving business processes and using resources efficiently. As Viking Paper, we have been calculating the total water footprint regularly every year since 2014. As of 2020 and 2021, we have reduced our total water footprint by 32% and 37%, respectively compared to 2014, which was taken as a base year.
As Viking Paper, we have been calculating our greenhouse gas emission since 2010. As a result of our efforts to reach our goal to reduce our greenhouse gas emission by 15% in 2020 compared to our base year 2010, we achieved our target by reducing our carbon footprint by 20% in 2020 compared to 2010.
With the principle of "waste management", we implement all necessary practices for the legal recycling or disposal of waste generated in our business. We discharge the water coming out of the biological treatment plant, which is the first in the cleaning paper industry, with its numbers below the legal limits. We measure working performance of the treatment plant, which consists of physical, chemical and biological units, in our own laboratory.
Viking Paper has registered its environmentalist identity with the FSC-CoC (Forest Stewardship Council - Chain of Custody) Management System Certificate proving that paper and paper products do not contain uncertified or uncontrolled materials in all production processes from raw material to final consumption. Inspected for the first time by BM TRADA Certification Turkey in 2010, Viking Paper became the first company among Turkish paper-cardboard manufacturers to receive the FSC-CoC Management System Certificate. The document, which audits compliance with national and international standards with the regular audits carried out every year, confirms that Viking Paper offers environmentally friendly products to its customers and consumers.
Within the scope of the audits carried out for the first time in 2016 the German certification body DQS, Viking Paper was awarded with the internationally recognized BRC and Hygienic Product GC MARK certificates. Pioneering its industry as the first company in Turkey to be entitled to receive these certificates given to industrial cleaning paper manufacturers, Viking Paper has proven that it manufactures high quality, safe and legally compliant products across Europe.
Cooperation with Çevko
As Viking Paper, we cooperate with ÇEVKO to support both economic and environmental sustainability by contributing to recycling process. Within the scope of our project, 56% of the packaging materials (polyethylene, paper-cardboard) we produced in 2020 were recovered.