As Siemens, we celebrated our 160th anniversary in Turkey last year. Through these 160 years, we have added value to our country in terms of products, technology, and human resources. I am both proud and pleased of saying that these values continue to exist.

In parallel with these values, there is a topic that we care very much for, in fact, not only for people, but for all living things: the Earth. Every work we do and every project we accomplish aims to make the world a better and a more livable place for new generations and all living things. If the world does not exist, neither shall we. For this reason, we decided to create a memorial forest that would symbolize the contributions we have made to the planet so far and that would be the greatest investment in the future. On Friday, April 7th, we gathered in İzmir / Seferihisar for this purpose.

I wholeheartedly believe that Siemens Turkey 160th Anniversary Memorial Forest that we planted in cooperation with the Aegean Forest Foundation is a very important project. I think this forest will also provide a valuable contribution to our goal of becoming carbon-neutral by 2023, i.e. the 100th anniversary of our Republic, as we have stated in our Business to Society Report in 2016.

I would like to once again thank the Aegean Forest Foundation and all authorities and Siemens employees for supporting the creation of the 160th Anniversary Memorial Forest. 5,000 saplings that we planted in Seferihisar, a symbol of environmentalism, naturalness, peace, and tranquility, will light the way to the future as well.

The title might sound a little weird to you at first. It can take quite a long time to define something as “authentic” so yes, you’re right. Electric carriages are new after all, aren’t they?

This year we celebrate the 200th birthday of our founder, Werner von Siemens; a true genius. But that wasn’t his only admirable characteristic: He was also a successful entrepreneur, similar to the start-up founders of today. He was the founder of a company that operates today in more than 200 countries with approximately 350 thousand employees. A visionary approach certainly plays an important role in his success. Pioneers such as Werner von Siemens transformed Berlin into an electric city (‘Electro polis’) in the first years of the 20th century, as early as 1900s. The second industrial revolution (today we are talking about the fourth) was triggered by the advent of electricity and Berlin became the European center of electrical industry. To give an example from our country, Siemens was the brand that introduced the first electric tram to İstanbul in 1914.

Many people don’t know of these facts. Well then, how many of you are aware of modern transportation systems being built not only upon “internal combustion engines”, but also on “electrical vehicles”? Specifically Berlin was a city on the move with electrical power. Egger-Lohner, manufacturer of Porsche P1 (a.k.a. C.2 Phaeton), the first electric vehicle by Porsche, manufactured electric vehicles in Charlottenburg together with various entrepreneurs, while Werner von Siemens lived his dream of “electromotor” in Halensee in 1882 – that was 134 years ago.

Today, we have items such as “the future of energy” and “autonomous vehicles” on our agenda. Although it took electric carriages more than a century to become commercially available, they are now becoming more and more widespread. The main motive is essentially “environmental sensitivity”. Should we really spend another 100 years waiting for a similar motive so that another visionary innovation such as “autonomous vehicles” can become widespread? It’s worth giving a thought.

In my opinion, the best thing about the social media is that it allows feedback and exchange of ideas. I have recently had an experience that supports my belief. In my Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google+ accounts, I posted an interview from the Siemens Customer Magazine and asked for my followers’ views on “smart cities.”
While some comments identified the “smart city” concept as cities and infrastructures that make peoples’ lives easier, some of them claimed that “smart cities” would bring more chaos. Of course, it is natural to have disagreements on any subject. But I think what we should focus on now is what people expect from technology companies to transform technology into benefits for the daily life.
As far as I can see, the biggest expectation is improvements in transportation, safety, and environmental initiatives. Therefore, it is necessary to focus not only on building technologies, but also on transportation technologies. Among the comments on transportation, I was mostly affected by the loss of lives due to delays of ambulances in heavy city traffic.
There is a very important article on this subject in the November issue of Siemens’ Future and Trends magazine. The article is about an EU project by Siemens and its partners. This project aims to ease city traffic by connecting the traffic lights and the drivers. During the tests, 12 ambulances, 2 electric vehicles, and 20 signaling systems were equipped with various communication units. Every 10 seconds, these communication units send information to certain points on the road via a dedicated WLAN network. For example, when the information on an approaching ambulance arrives, the traffic light turns green as long as it won’t cause a serious effect on traffic. I believe that such technological developments can increase the chance of survival in cases where even seconds are critical. In short, as in everything else, life should be the priority when it comes to smart cities.

A short while ago we had our EMEA 2014 Environment, Health and Safety Conference in Istanbul. Our colleagues had a chance to discuss why environment, health and safety are such important topics and why we should implement high qualified standards all the time.

As a company that aims to be the leader in various aspects, we as Siemens consider EHS as one of the key topics that we need to address, invest in, and set high standards for. By setting high standards and being a great example among leading companies, we recognize that EHS enhances our reputation and reliability. Our approach toward EHS also accelerates our competitive strengths and differentiates Siemens in terms of “responsibility for all.” I believe that this should also go for every other company operating in the business with the notion of ‘responsibility’.

Turkey, as we all know, is a rapidly developing and dynamic country, whose production capacity and labor force participation are increasing accordingly. In this context, the challenges to EHS are significant. With the challenges Turkey faces over the years, there is definite scope of further improvement for companies like us which could bring multinational know how, implementation strategies and best practices for the environment, health, and safety in Turkey. Although, Turkish Legislation for H&S was adopted from the EU Directives & taken into force in 2013, I recognize that many workplaces in our country still have high levels of internal and external risks. Regrettably, we have suffered numerous times from the painful consequences of the lack of essential EHS standards at workplaces. There are serious lessons that we need to take from the latest mine accident at Soma, Turkey, which cost 301 lives. Hence, the contribution and dedication of companies, such as Siemens, are vital for optimizing EHS standards in this fast-growing country.

Maintaining safety at all times is what we should expect from ourselves every day. It is not just about our business life, but also about our daily life. At Siemens, we have this “zero-harm culture” and we always feel that we need to be exemplary for all our fellow employees. As parents, as family members, as a part of society, do not you also think that we should always make ‘environment, safety and health’ our priority? At this very moment, as a growing country which has a huge young population, this I believe is more important than ever. For everyone’s sake…

We humans developed a communication methodology by naming specific days to remind us of our failures and negligence. So what comes in to my mind when I think about the world environment day?

First of all regrets, then responsibility! Regrets, because we neglect the space of the next generation by giving topics as environment, safety and health a minor importance.

Regrets, that we talk and celebrate these events but we do not make the message a core aspect of how we live, work and develop our future.

Regrets that we are irresponsible on how we react on harmful actions and do this only then, when it is just too late and human lives are lost.

We have a responsibility that we owe to the next generations. For this reason, when we celebrate World Environment Day we should first put ‘responsibility’ before everything else. We should not end up to say: “If we only knew!”

Happy World Environment Day.

We have great expectations for new technologies today, in the early 2010s. For example, the Federal Republic of Germany shuts down nuclear power plants overnight and claims that it can be compensated by new technologies such as offshore wind energy power plants, biomass, energy-saving technologies, “smart” electricity grids, and perhaps a huge solar power plant in the African deserts. This must be the belief in technologic physibility!