In light of an amendment to Article 88 of the Turkish Commercial Code in 2022, the Public Oversight, Accounting and Auditing Standard Authority was assigned to issue the Turkish Sustainability Reporting Standards. In light of this, sustainability reporting was made mandatory for businesses which fall within its remit, including:
- Banks are subject to the reporting requirements, without any threshold being applied.
- Other businesses have reporting obligations if they fulfil two of the following thresholds:
o Total assets over TL 500m,
o Net annual sales revenue over TL 1 billion, or
o Number of employees exceeds 250.
The reporting period began on 1 January 2024. Sustainability and climate related disclosures are to cover the same reporting periods as financial statements. These disclosures must include information relating to climate and sustainability which can be expected to affect that companies future financial adequacy. Specifically, the report should include;
1. General Provisions. These include sustainability practices and strategies, financial and operational targets and implementation strategies.
2. Climate Related Disclosures. These include the company's climate related risks and opportunities and environmental performance, such as carbon emissions and energy use.
3. Relevant Financial Information. This includes the company's sustainability related financial performance data, and financial impacts of social and environmental costs.
5. Environmental and Social Impacts. These include natural resource utilization and environmental impacts, community engagement and corporate social responsibility activities, and impacts on local communities.
6. Management and Internal Control. These include internal control mechanisms of the company relating to sustainability, distribution of sustainability-related responsibilities in management, and transparency and reliability of the reporting process.
