Akbank has implemented Turkey's first and only Blue Financing Product Package in order to develop sustainable tourism, reduce the environmental footprint in marine tourism, port and maritime activities, and protect the seas.
Akbank continues to develop products aimed at protecting natural resources with the increasing population and climate change. Determining sustainable finance as one of its priority areas in its sustainability activities, Akbank offers three different products called Blue Tourism Loans, Blue Port Loans and Blue Transportation Loans under the umbrella of Blue Financing to develop sustainable tourism, reduce the environmental footprint in marine tourism activities, protect the seas in port activities and accelerate the transition to low carbon economy. All three products are implemented within the scope of reducing the environmental footprint in tourism, protecting the seas, protecting and developing biodiversity, and supporting the fight against pollution.
The Blue tourism loan financing includes works such as new hotel construction, refinancing of existing hotels, renovation of existing buildings, investments related to sustainability, green building integration, waste management, biodiversity studies, water and wastewater management and energy efficiency.
The Blue Port Loan is being implemented to be used in financing the construction of the new port, port refinancing, all activities related to sustainability in ports, waste management, circular economy studies, biodiversity studies, and water and wastewater management.
The Bank offers The Blue Transportation Loan opportunity to those who want to purchase new sea transportation vehicles (for touristic or commercial purposes), invest in alternative fuels, accelerate their low-carbon transition investments, and use financing for energy-efficient, environment-friendly machinery and equipment renewal and replacement.
“200 billion TL worth sustainable loan financing until 2030”
Saying that the oceans, which cover 70 percent of the earth, ensure the regulation of climate and meteorological events, Levent Çelebioğlu, the Executive Vice President in charge of Akbank Corporate and Investment Banking, underlined that 97 percent of the world's water resources belong to the oceans and seas. Çelebioğlu indicated that the “blue economy”, with an annual economic value of 2.5 trillion dollars, corresponds to the 7th largest economy in the world. He said the following in his statement:
“With the increasing population, seas and oceans are getting increasingly more polluted, and water resources are decreasing with the effect of climate change. For this reason, it is becoming increasingly more important that sectoral approaches are developed in ocean and marine activities all over the world and that each sector works to reduce its effects on the aquatic ecosystem.
As the first deposit bank in the banking sector in Turkey to set a concrete target in the field of sustainable finance, we continue our efforts to provide our country with a sustainable loan financing of 200 billion TL until 2030. In this context, we created Turkey's first and only "Blue Financing Product Package". We aim to encourage the transition of our country, which is surrounded on three sides by the sea, to a low carbon economy, to reduce the environmental footprint of activities, and to support sustainable development, with 3 new, innovative and transformative products included in our product package. It is also known that serious investments are required every year in order to reach the Sustainable Development Goals and to reach the targets quickly. In order to accelerate this sense of responsibility and sustainable development, we became one of the first banks to sign the Global Compact Turkey Sustainable Finance Statement in 2017. With our Blue Financing Products Package, we serve the 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th purposes of Sustainable Development Goals. Our pioneering work in the field of sustainable finance will continue.”