Dear Stakeholders, Members, and Partners,
The transition from the 20th to the 21st century, together with technology, human habits, and revolutionary discoveries and applications, has made us reflect on every step we take to sustain the vital functions of our world.
Our civil society movement, with a seven-year history, continued the success of the Turkish Women in Renewable Energy and Energy Sector Group (also known as TWRE) and, with the Green-Collar Women’s Association, which we established in June 2022, we took our journey one step further with the same excitement and energy as on the first day.
During the first three years of our association, we became not just a civil society movement but a community that thinks, produces projects inspired by each other, and empowers one another, including both individual and institutional members. Together with engineers, academics, entrepreneurs, and professionals from across Turkey, we worked hand in hand to increase the visibility of women in the energy sector and ensure stronger representation in decision-making processes.
We established communication with sister communities from the United States to Europe and Africa and expanded our impact through the projects we implemented, guiding the leaders of energy transition.
In line with Turkey’s 2035 Energy Transition and 2053 Net-Zero Carbon targets, placing the climate crisis at the center, we raised public awareness on the legislation to be developed, investments, quality education, equality, inclusivity, the human resources to be trained, and a just transition.
With our 2nd Gender Equality in the Energy Sector Research, we analyzed data from 45,500 employees in the energy production, distribution, and supply chain and determined that, as of 2024, women constitute 23% of the workforce in our sector.
According to a study by the European Central Bank, a 1% increase in the proportion of female managers results in a 0.5% reduction in companies’ carbon emissions. This is not just a statistic; it is a strong indicator of the direct impact of women’s leadership on sustainability performance.
In light of these findings, YEYKAD, in its new term, advocates for fair access to energy, generational equality, and sustainability beyond, promoting nature-friendly production models. Our focus will include reforestation, ecological living, recycling, and similar topics.
Ensuring that women leaders are fully involved in decision-making processes—from boards of directors to politics—and in companies’ reporting and valuation processes, including sustainability indexes, green bond issuance, and asset management, is one of our priorities.
As green employment grows across all sectors, our goal is to reach more young people in high schools and universities, create a broader impact geographically, expand vocational training to develop needed mid-level professionals, and strengthen public-private-civil society collaborations.
On this path, together with our dear members and valued stakeholders, we will continue to produce unifying projects led by women for a sustainable future.
Sincerely,
Sedef Budak
President
