Sustainability

SUSTAINABILITY REPORT DILEK KAYA HOTEL Ministry of Tourism Special Accommodation Facility Operating Licence (2010) YİĞİTOĞLU TURİZM İNŞ. OTOM. SAN. İÇ VE DIŞ TİC. LTD. ŞTİ. INTRODUCTION Yiğitoğlu Turizm was founded by Ahmet Yiğitoğlu in 1985 and incorporated in 1996 as Yiğitoğlu Turizm İnş. Otom. San. İç ve Dış Tic. Ltd. Şti. Affiliated with Yiğitoğlu Turizm İnş. Otom. San. Ltd. Şti., there are 3 accommodation facilities with a Ministry of Tourism Operating Licence, 2 accommodation facilities with a Tourism Investment Certificate (under construction), and the Yusuf Fatma Yiğitoğlu Mosque, which is under construction. The company continues its commercial life as a family business. • Burcu Kaya Hotel — Ministry of Tourism 4-Star Hotel Operating Licence (1987) • Yusuf Yiğitoğlu Konağı — Ministry of Tourism Special Accommodation Facility Operating Licence (2003) • Dilek Kaya Hotel — Ministry of Tourism Special Accommodation Facility Operating Licence (2010) Serving the tourism sector for over 38 years, Yiğitoğlu Turizm continues its operations and investments to meet the requirements of the sector and the legal regulations, and to ensure sustainability. In this context, a Sustainability Management System is being established for all our facilities. Sustainability is generally defined as meeting today's needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainability in Tourism It aims to contribute to the local economy and to the protection of natural and cultural heritage by minimizing the negative social and environmental impacts of tourism, while improving service quality in doing so. Among the core aims of sustainable tourism are: using as correctly as possible the environmental resources that play an important role in the development of tourism; safeguarding economic balance, natural heritage and biodiversity; respecting the socio-cultural fabric of host communities; increasing tolerance between cultures; preserving cultural heritage and traditional values; contributing to improving the quality of life of local people and visitors; achieving gains in terms of social services; and reducing poverty by creating income opportunities. This is where the importance of sustainable tourism emerges. As Dilek Kaya Hotel (Yiğitoğlu Turizm İnş. Otom. San. İç ve Dış Tic. Ltd. Şti.), contributing to the Cappadocia Region we are part of and to our sector is among our most important goals. Our Sustainable Management System, which covers our entire management system and which we will use to achieve this goal, is addressed in this handbook. MANAGEMENT SYSTEM Dilek Kaya Hotel has been serving the accommodation sector since 2010. Our mission is to increase guest satisfaction by channeling the gains of our business into investment within its own structure, to serve with products reflecting the Cappadocia culture that we can offer our guests in our region, and thereby to contribute to our region in creating a preferred, highly competitive destination. Our vision is to be a leading facility of the region and of Türkiye, self-sufficient and integrated with nature, offering economic efficiency as well as a distinctive understanding of tourism that blends corporate culture with family culture. Within this framework, our work on establishing a sustainable management system is explained in this booklet. The Management System section presents the management system and its stages covering Dilek Kaya Hotel's sustainability processes. Our Sustainability Management System (SMS) has been developed to suit the size and scope of our hotel. The basis of our management system is our fundamental risk analyses. The steps of our risk analysis are as follows: • Hazard Identification • Analysis of Risks • Evaluation of Risks • Determining Control Measures • Implementing Control Measures A risk assessment has been carried out in terms of OHS. Improvements are made according to the results of the risk assessments. The SMS is based on implementing certain plans and policies in the environmental, social, cultural, economic, human rights and quality areas, setting targets on these matters, and measuring and evaluating the achievement of these targets. Our management system operates on the Plan–Do–Check–Act (PDCA) cycle: Plan Dilek Kaya Hotel cares about society, culture, the environment, the national economy and the management system, and sets targets. Our roadmap for reaching these targets involves rigorous planning. Do As a result of the planning, the basic policies and practices established are monitored, measured and recorded at regular intervals by the relevant staff. Check The system outputs and feedback of the practices (from the guest and staff perspective) are monitored, recorded and evaluated in terms of whether they are consistent with the business culture and the image it wishes to project. Act If the evaluation results reveal a problem and the desired level is not achieved, corrective measures are taken; the actions are recorded and archived. LEGAL COMPLIANCE Dilek Kaya Hotel has adopted the principle of complying with applicable local and national legislation and practices on matters such as safety, health and the environment. Staff are periodically informed through training on the relevant topics and legislation. The documents we hold are provided in the annex, and their list is below: • Tourism Establishment / Special Accommodation Facility Certificate (Ministry of Culture and Tourism) • Staff Insurance Declarations (Last Month) • Tax Certificate (Revenue Administration) • Sewer Wastewater Connection Certificate (Ortahisar Municipality) • Environmental Management Service Certificate • Zero Waste Certificate • Occupational Safety Contract with an OHS Joint Service Unit (OSGB) • Safe Tourism Certificate • Emergency Action Procedures • Electricity Generation Licence • Workplace Physician Contract • Public Health Pool Water Inspection Reports • Ministry of Culture and Tourism Approved Facility Price Forms • Ministry of Culture and Tourism Entry–Overnight Notifications • Pest Control Contracts and Inspection Reports • Staff Certificates and Training Documents • Personal Data Protection (KVKK) Compliance Documents • Alcohol Sales Permit • Hygiene Procedures • First-Aid Certified Staff • Certified Lifeguard Staff • Public Education Hygiene Certificate • Health Reports for All Staff • Trademark Registration Certificate • Hotel Insurance Policy • Private Security Financial Liability Policy HUMAN RIGHTS What Are Human Rights? The Right to Life The right to life is among the fundamental principles of human rights and is granted equally to everyone. Personal inviolability is essential; no person may restrict another's right to life, otherwise they are deemed to have committed a crime before the law. Prohibition of Torture and Ill-Treatment Torture and ill-treatment of people is strictly prohibited. As a basic condition of a humane life, elements such as torture, ill-treatment and insult are prohibited. Freedom of Thought and Expression People have freedom of thought and expression. No one may be mistreated because of their thoughts or expressions. Freedom of Religion and Conscience Everyone is free to believe in the religion they wish. No one may be coerced on account of the religion they believe in. The Right to Privacy of Private Life Everyone has a private life. No one may interfere with another person's private life or collect information about their private life. The Right to a Fair Trial The right to a fair trial is one of the most important human rights. No one is granted privilege on account of their class or title; everyone is equal before the law. The Right to Property Everyone has the right to acquire property and may use their property as they wish within the framework of the law. The Right to Vote and to Be Elected Everyone has the right to vote and to be elected; they may take part in elections and stand as candidates. No one may be coerced in this regard. The Right to Marry The right to marry is a right that arises from human nature. As far as the law permits, everyone may marry the person they wish. WOMEN'S RIGHTS AND GENDER EQUALITY POLICY We attach importance to gender equality in our business. • We ensure the health, safety and well-being of all our employees regardless of gender. • We support women's participation in the workforce across all our departments and offer equal opportunities. • We act on an 'equal pay for equal work' policy without gender discrimination. • We distribute duties in observance of the principle of equality. • We provide the environment necessary for equal access to career opportunities. • We develop training policies and support women's participation and greater awareness. • We create a working environment and practices that preserve work–family life balance. • We support women taking part in company management and offer equal opportunities. • We by no means allow women to be subjected to abuse, harassment, discrimination, suppression, coercion, defamation and the like. We are always aware of the value they bring to the world and to our organization, and we support their presence. CHILD RIGHTS POLICY Children are entrusted to us for the future. Recognizing them as individuals, respecting their rights, and watching over and protecting them against all kinds of psychological, physical, commercial and other exploitation is our primary responsibility. To ensure this: • We do not allow child labour in our own organizations and expect the same sensitivity from all our business partners. • We offer environments/opportunities within the business that contribute to children's development, where they can freely express their thoughts, wishes and feelings and feel free and comfortable. • We provide our employees with training on preventing and recognizing child abuse. • We make sure that children are under adult supervision in the activities they take part in. • We organize training to raise awareness about protecting children's rights and support related projects. • When we witness suspicious acts involving children, we first inform the hotel management and, where deemed necessary, seek help from official institutions. REPORTING AND COMMUNICATION Dilek Kaya Hotel aims to provide accurate information to everyone in its promotional activities. All our printed materials and all our information available online reflect current and accurate information. Real images are used across all channels. Staff Participation Dilek Kaya Hotel undertakes to comply with the relevant provisions of Labour Law No. 4857 and pays its employees at least the minimum wage. It also undertakes compliance with Social Insurance and General Health Insurance Law No. 5510 and Occupational Health and Safety Law No. 6331. An Occupational Health and Safety service is procured at our business. OHS risk analyses are renewed at certain intervals, and improvements are made according to the risk scores. To manage its sustainability activities, our hotel has formed a Sustainability Team. The table below lists the team members and the topics they are responsible for: Hotel Manager Sustainability Champion Environmental & Economic Sustainability Officer Social, Cultural & Quality Sustainability Officer Our employees can access all our training materials freely and openly. A WhatsApp group has been set up to quickly deliver, in writing, matters such as instant notifications, sharing of training videos and knowledge transfer to our staff. Periodic training on sustainability is planned. Analyses from our staff productivity assessment surveys are evaluated and improvements are made within the business. The surveys are collected and evaluated monthly, on the 20th of each month. Suggestion and complaint boxes are active in staff areas for all our staff's wishes and complaints. The boxes are opened on the 20th of each month; staff who wish may leave their requests and complaints in writing in these boxes without any obligation to state their identity. To protect nature and reduce paper consumption, surveys and reporting are carried out and evaluated online. Sample surveys, their results and evaluations are provided in the annex. While using the communication channels for all units in our hotel, WhatsApp groups are used so that staff-to-staff and staff-to-management communication can be established in the healthiest and fastest way. In addition, our guest-satisfaction-focused hotel ensures fast communication via radio (walkie-talkie). Our sustainability goals and responsibilities will also be published in our sustainability management system on our official website. Guest Experience Dilek Kaya Hotel places importance on customer satisfaction and experience. Those who receive service at our facility are regarded as 'guests' rather than customers, and this is conveyed to all our staff as part of our corporate culture. Ensuring continuity in guest satisfaction is aimed not only at meeting the guest's need for accommodation but also at conveying the region's culture through both the structure of the facility and the services provided. At Dilek Kaya Hotel, all guests know they are staying at a family business and receive service with the confidence of being able to reach a manager or a family member at any time. Regarding guest satisfaction, in addition to the verbal communication of the Public Relations department, printed survey forms are available in our guests' rooms. In addition, online reviews are evaluated monthly, and the Public Relations department has been assigned to this matter. At the sustainability team's monthly evaluation meetings, all reviews are assessed and adjustments and improvements are made accordingly. The reception and Public Relations department have been assigned to receive guests' immediate complaints and provide immediate solutions; efforts are made to respond to guest reviews as quickly as possible. They have been given the necessary authority to enhance guest satisfaction and resolve complaints on the spot. To enhance guest satisfaction, services such as turndown service, fruit treats in the room, and free room decoration for special occasions are provided. ACCESSIBILITY Accessibility means everyone being able to reach and use any place and any service independently and safely. To any place and any service — because individuals must be able to access all spaces and services, from their homes to educational buildings and workplaces, from open and green areas to public transport and information and communication technologies. Independently and safely — because the arrangements made must be usable without anyone's help and without creating any risk. For everyone — because accessibility is a necessity for people with disabilities and, for everyone in society, a matter of comfortable living. Dilek Kaya Hotel aims to take steps to improve accessibility and to continuously maintain and repair the related infrastructure. In particular, as management we provide the support needed so that guests with disabilities are not excluded from any area of tourism. PROCUREMENT When purchasing and providing goods and services, Dilek Kaya Hotel values suppliers that are of available and sufficient quality, local and environmentally sensitive, and reasonably priced. We check and request suppliers' sustainability-related certificates, information and documents. Local Purchasing Provided quality and reasonable prices are met, Dilek Kaya Hotel gives priority to local suppliers. As noted in our supplier list, we work with a significant proportion of local suppliers and aim to increase this rate. To support local vendors, Dilek Kaya Hotel advocates fair trade; it aims to contribute to the economy by trading with newly established, less powerful producers. Environmentally Sensitive Purchasing The ratio of purchases made from environmentally certified local producers/suppliers and fair-trade suppliers to total purchases is measured. Within this framework, we aim to increase the proportion of local and fair-trade suppliers and take care to do so. In our purchasing we give priority to environmentally sensitive and organic products. If there is no eco-labelled product in the product group to be purchased, we choose suppliers or producers whose production and processes do not harm the environment. In purchasing, priority is given to selecting suppliers that hold sustainability certificates (such as ISO 14001, ISO 14064, ISO 20400). Dilek Kaya Hotel does not purchase, display or offer for guest use any endangered plant or animal species. Efficient Purchasing Our hotel gives priority to bulk and loose-product purchasing. It also operates a system for returning the packaging of packaged products (reusable packaging such as glass and plastic) to the supplier. This results in less transport and fewer greenhouse gas emissions. It is our core priority and preference that products arriving at Dilek Kaya Hotel do not contain unnecessary and excessive plastic, nylon, paper, glass or wooden packaging. For amenity products tailored to guest requests, a system is in place offering single-use products to guests who want them and permanent (refillable) products to guests who prefer those. CULTURAL SUSTAINABILITY While respecting the intellectual property rights of the local community, Dilek Kaya Hotel incorporates authentic elements of traditional and contemporary local culture into its operations, design, decoration, cuisine and shops. In terms of keeping cultural heritage alive and passing it on to future generations, the Fatma Yusuf Yiğitoğlu Mosque was built under our affiliated Yiğitoğlu Turizm umbrella and transferred to the Presidency of Religious Affairs. The mosque project both meets the local community's need in the region and reflects our cultural heritage as an original design of Seljuk architecture. Presentation of Cultural Heritage Handcrafted products of our region are used in the decoration of both our rooms and our common areas: • Reflecting wood craftsmanship and the divan (sedir) culture in the decoration • Serving Turkish coffee in keeping with tradition • Display of the region's hand-woven kilims and carpets • Use of examples of stonework in the decoration • Serving tea in copper teapots Built with architecture unique to our region, our facility uses the stone that is the region's natural texture. To preserve the region's natural vegetation, no tree was harmed during construction; the region's native vegetation — fruit trees and vines — was used in our landscaping to represent our region. Artifacts Dilek Kaya Hotel does not buy or sell, broker the trade of, or display historical and archaeological artifacts. Promotion of Sustainable Local Gastronomy Dilek Kaya Hotel gives priority to promoting and consuming local products. In our restaurant, single-use product consumption has been reduced as much as possible. Paper cutlery holders are not used; once our stock of single-use items such as salt and pepper is used up, we will switch to refillable salt and pepper shakers. The tablecloths used during service are made of washable materials, and no paper, cardboard or plastic cups are used in the restaurant area. Local dishes appropriate to the region are served every day at breakfast and dinner. Although they change daily, the finest examples of Anatolian culture are featured at our buffets: • Casserole (güveç) dishes • Stuffed vegetables (dolma) • Wrapped vine/cabbage leaves (sarma) • Dried vegetable dishes • Pickles • Grape molasses (pekmez) and many similar products These products are purchased in season from local suppliers as certified organic produce and served directly from the garden to the guest. SUSTAINABLE ENERGY In line with its mission, Dilek Kaya Hotel has adopted the principle of using renewable energy sources and has made use of these sources to the extent possible. Solar energy, a leading renewable energy source, is actively used for electricity generation at Dilek Kaya Hotel. Looking at the electricity consumption and generation table, the facility generates a large part of its electricity itself. Just as our hotel ensures sustainability in electricity generation, it also aims for sustainability in consumption. Sensor-controlled lighting is installed in our hotel's common areas and in corridors where it poses no safety hazard. To reduce energy consumption, LED bulbs are used in all rooms, and a keycard electricity system is in place. Our entire hotel is built from the special yellow stone of the Cappadocia region. In terms of thermal insulation, the regional stone creates a cooler environment in summer and a warmer one in winter, thereby saving the energy used for heating and cooling. Our hotel has switched to natural gas; the necessary arrangements were made for the heating systems and kitchen use. Among our forward-looking goals is to provide a larger share of electricity generation from solar energy. Our hotel informs and trains its employees and stakeholders on energy saving. ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY Dilek Kaya Hotel is an organization that acts with a sense of social responsibility in order to use its resources as efficiently as possible, prevent environmental pollution and protect nature, reduce the amount of waste, ensure recycling and render waste harmless, and prevent pollution and ensure sustainability in the delivery of its products and services. Accordingly, it complies with all environmental legislation; even where no legal requirement exists, it researches the separation and disposal of waste that could harm the environment and works to dispose of it by the most appropriate method. Dilek Kaya Hotel holds a Zero Waste Certificate and an industrial waste management plan. The facility delivers waste such as packaging waste and used vegetable oil to licensed companies, and records of these deliveries are entered into the system of the Ministry of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change. Including energy, water and solid waste, these are measured by type and calculated per guest/overnight stay. By virtue of its room capacity, Dilek Kaya Hotel: • Assessed as outside the scope of the EIA Regulation. • An Environmental Permit Exemption letter is on file. Environmental training and awareness training are carried out regularly by the contracted environmental consultancy firm. WATER MANAGEMENT AND WASTEWATER Dilek Kaya Hotel has a water-saving policy. To this end, procedures involving regular measurement, monitoring and reduction are applied. All legal requirements and procedures are followed in water use; employees and stakeholders are informed about water conservation. Water-saving equipment is used in our hotel. All rooms have a dual-flush system; in common areas the basin taps are sensor-operated and the cisterns are dual-flush. To prevent water waste and water pollution, information notices for towels are placed in the rooms; the room cleaning procedure includes changing the duvet covers and sheets after a 2-night stay. For wastewater disposal, the regulations and legal requirements set by the local authority are followed. According to Water Risk Atlas data, the area where our hotel is located lies in a medium/high water-risk zone. For the sewer connection of the domestic wastewater generated at Dilek Kaya Hotel, a sewer connection letter from the Ortahisar Municipality (Ürgüp district, Nevşehir province) is on file. FOOD WASTE AND SOLID WASTE Dilek Kaya Hotel holds a Zero Waste Certificate and has a solid-waste management plan. Measures for separation at the point of waste generation, including guest areas, have been put in place. Zero Waste training has been organized for our staff. Food Waste Food waste is set aside for the animals fed at our facility and for stray animals, and feeding is carried out in appropriate places. Fruit and vegetable peels are separated and composted, and used for the plants and trees in our garden. Within the legal framework, waste oils are collected and recycled by a licensed used-cooking-oil collection company. Packaging Waste Packaging waste generated at Dilek Kaya Hotel is stored at the waste yard and collected by a licensed waste collection company. Waste Batteries Waste batteries and accumulators are collected in airtight containers and sent to TAP (the Portable Battery Manufacturers and Importers Association).