Turn canteen surplus and waste pallets into social value

Submitted through the COP31 Sustainable Transformation Awards · SKD Türkiye (WBCSD Global Network Partner)

Borusan Otomotiv distributes and retails motor vehicles in Türkiye's services sector and employs more than 1,000 people.

Corporate volunteering in most organisations takes the form of single events. People turn out on a scheduled day, the activity produces a photograph and a report line, and nothing in the operation changes. At the same time, ordinary operations generate two streams that leave the business as waste: pallets that accumulate in branch workshops and are no longer used, and food surplus from branch canteens.

A nearby animal shelter has two recurring needs that match those streams exactly: durable housing for stray animals and a continuous supply of food. Before the initiative there was no regular volunteering activity directed at the shelter, no reuse of the idle pallets and no systematic use of the canteen surplus.

The company's employee volunteering organisation launched the model in 2025, and 2025 is the base year for measurement. The initiative is not carried out under any legal obligation or sectoral standard; it was developed as an internal initiative that combines employee volunteering with social benefit and environmental sustainability.

The design objective was to move volunteering out of the events calendar and into the operating routine, so that social and environmental value are produced by the same activity and continue without a campaign behind them.

Location of the initiative: Türkiye, across branch locations including the Avcılar branch in Istanbul

The model connects three flows that already existed separately inside the business and gives each of them a destination.

The first is material. Idle pallets accumulating in the workshops at the branches are recovered and rebuilt by volunteers into durable animal kennels, so a waste stream becomes a product the partner organisation needs. Five durable kennels have been produced this way.

The second is food. Surplus generated in the canteen at the Avcılar branch is delivered to the shelter on a regular schedule rather than occasionally, which both reduces food waste and provides a continuous contribution to feeding the animals.

The third is people. Employee volunteers carry out the recovery, construction and delivery work, so the volunteering hours are attached to a defined operational task instead of to an event.

What separates the model from a conventional corporate social responsibility activity is that it is measurable and continuous. Volunteer participation records, volunteering hours, donation and delivery records and the weight of food surplus handled are all recorded through internal operational systems, which means the activity can be reported in the same way as any other operational process.

It also requires no additional investment. The materials come from the company's own workshops and canteens, the labour comes from the volunteer organisation, and the partner is a local shelter whose needs are recurring rather than seasonal, which is what allows the model to run continuously and to be repeated at any location that has a workshop, a canteen and a local partner.

Figure 1: Animal shelters built from workshop pallets

Figure 2: Volunteers sorting donated material on site

Sustainability impact

Climate

The initiative does not target Scope 1 or Scope 2 emissions. It adds no vehicle, no equipment and no energy demand to the operation, because the pallets, the workshops, the canteen and the volunteer organisation all exist for operational reasons and the model was designed to require no additional investment.

Its greenhouse gas relevance is an enabling one and sits in the value chain rather than in the company's own operations. Two streams that previously left the business for disposal now have a destination. In 2025 a total of 6,181 kg of canteen food surplus was recorded as recovered rather than discarded, and the same process has continued systematically in 2026, so food that would have decomposed in disposal is eaten instead. Idle workshop pallets were rebuilt into five durable animal kennels, which both keeps the material out of disposal and removes the need to produce new timber housing for the same purpose. Because the surplus leaves on a scheduled route rather than as an occasional donation, the diversion recurs in every period rather than once.

The diverted material is waste generated in the company's own operations, so any effect falls outside Scope 1 and Scope 2. The avoided emissions from the two streams sit under GHG Protocol Scope 3, Category 5: Waste generated in operations. Applying DEFRA emission factors, the company estimates approximately 4,329 kg CO2e avoided through the diversion of canteen food surplus and a further 116 kg CO2e through the reuse of wooden pallets, and reports a total avoided impact of approximately 4,444 kg CO2e. These are estimates derived from published factors rather than measured results.

Nature

The environmental result is the diversion of two waste streams from disposal.

In 2025 a total of 6,181 kg of food surplus was recorded as recovered rather than discarded, and the same process has continued systematically in 2026. Because the surplus is delivered on a regular route rather than donated occasionally, the diversion is continuous and appears in the operational records each period.

Idle pallets from the branch workshops have been reused to produce five durable animal kennels. The reuse is direct: the material is rebuilt into a finished product without an intermediate recycling or reprocessing step, which retains the value already embedded in the wood.

Neither stream previously had a defined destination. Before the initiative there was no application in place for reusing the idle pallets or for systematically handling the canteen surplus, so the diversion is additional rather than a reallocation of existing recycling.

Social

In the 2025 to 2026 period, 27 employee volunteers carried out approximately 100 hours of volunteering activity.

The activity improved living conditions for stray animals at the partner shelter through the five kennels built from recovered pallets and through the continuous food supply from the branch canteen.

The organisational result is a change in how volunteering functions. It has moved from activities carried out on specific days to a structure integrated with operational processes, supported by annual volunteering plans, regular coordination and internal communication, so that employees experience volunteering as part of the working routine rather than as an occasional event.

Impact is evidenced through volunteer participation records, volunteering hours, and donation and delivery records, with the measurement method based on internal operational records and volunteering data.

Business impact

Benefits

The model requires no additional investment. It runs on materials that already exist in the company's workshops and canteens and on the volunteering organisation the company already operates, so the value created does not carry a capital cost.

Handling the pallet stream through reuse reduces the volume of material the branches have to dispose of, and the canteen surplus leaves on a defined route rather than as waste.

For the workforce, volunteering that produces a visible physical result and a recurring commitment supports engagement more durably than a single annual event, and it gives employees a route to propose activities, since the priorities are set partly from volunteers' own suggestions.

Because it depends on ordinary operational resources rather than on a dedicated budget, the model can be repeated at other locations and in other group companies without a business case for each site, which is what makes replication realistic.

Costs

The costs are operational rather than capital: coordination time from the volunteering organisation, volunteer hours contributed by employees, workshop time to convert pallets into kennels, and the transport of food surplus to the shelter on a regular schedule.

Handling food surplus imposes a discipline that a donation campaign does not. The route has to be reliable, and the handling has to meet the standards the receiving organisation requires, which means the activity has to be planned by the administrative services teams rather than improvised by volunteers.

The two dependencies that determine whether the model survives are the continuity of volunteer participation and the operational capacity of the local partner. Both are managed through regular coordination, internal communication and annual volunteering plans.

Costs are contained by using existing operational resources, by concentrating the food route on the branch that generates the surplus, and by choosing a partner whose needs recur, so that the same route serves every cycle without renegotiation.

Impact beyond sustainability and business

Co-benefits

The initiative gives the branch workshops a use for material they would otherwise pay to dispose of, and gives the shelter durable infrastructure it could not otherwise fund.

Volunteering embedded in operational processes builds relationships between branch management, administrative services teams and employees that persist beyond the activity itself.

The model creates a template that other locations, other sectors and other civil society partners can adopt, because none of its components is specific to the automotive business.

Potential side-effects

The scale of the environmental result is modest. Diverting 6,181 kg of food surplus and building five kennels is meaningful for the partner and for the branches involved, but it should not be presented as a material contribution to the company's overall waste or emissions position.

The model depends on volunteers, so participation is not guaranteed from one period to the next; this is the reason annual volunteering plans and regular internal communication are treated as part of the design rather than as administration.

It also depends on a single local partner. If the shelter's operational capacity changes, both the material route and the food route need a new destination, and neither works without a receiving organisation able to absorb the flow reliably.

Redirecting canteen surplus reduces waste but does not address the reason the surplus is generated. A complete approach would also work on portion planning and preparation volumes at source.

Typical business profile

The model suits companies operating multi-site branch, workshop or service networks that generate reusable material in their own workshops and food surplus in their own canteens.

It is most relevant for organisations that already run an employee volunteering structure, because the coordination capability is the component that is hardest to create from nothing.

Delivery engages the volunteering organisation, branch management and administrative services teams, working with a local civil society partner whose needs are continuous rather than seasonal.

Approach

• Map the waste streams that already exist inside the operation: Identify what leaves the business as waste and where it is generated - here idle pallets from the branch workshops and food surplus from the canteen at one branch - before deciding what the volunteering activity should be.

• Choose a partner with recurring rather than one-off needs: Select a civil society organisation whose requirements repeat every week, since a continuous need is what allows volunteering to become a routine instead of an event.

• Let the partner set the priorities: Assess the partner's field needs regularly and collect suggestions from volunteer employees, so that the activities respond to real requirements rather than to what is convenient to organise.

• Convert the material stream into something the partner needs: Rebuild the recovered material into a finished product - in this case five durable kennels from workshop pallets - rather than donating the raw material and leaving the conversion to the partner.

• Make the food transfer a scheduled route: Deliver canteen surplus on a fixed schedule from the branch that generates it, so that the diversion is continuous, the receiving organisation can plan around it, and the quantity can be recorded.

• Record every flow from the start: Log volunteer numbers, volunteering hours, donation and delivery records and the weight of food handled through internal operational systems, because a volunteering activity that is not measured cannot be reported or replicated.

• Give the activity an owner and put it in the annual plan: Assign coordination to the volunteering organisation with branch management and administrative services teams supporting operational planning, and cover the activity in annual volunteering plans so it survives changes of personnel.

• Replicate location by location: Extend first to other locations of the same business and then to group companies with a comparable structure, since each site needs only a workshop, a canteen and a local partner to run the same model.

Stakeholders involved

• Project leads: The initiative runs under the company's employee volunteering organisation and is supported by senior management. Coordination is carried out by the volunteering organisation's management team, which sets the annual plan, maintains the relationship with the partner and holds the reporting.

• Company functions: Administrative services teams and volunteer employees take active roles in the operational processes. Branch management supports operational planning at site level, the workshops supply the recovered material and the canteen at the Avcılar branch supplies the food surplus, so the activity is embedded in the branches rather than run centrally.

• Main providers: The model uses materials generated inside the company's own workshops and canteens rather than purchased inputs, so no external supplier is engaged for the core activity; this is the reason it requires no additional investment.

• Other: The Kurtaran Ev animal shelter is the civil society partner. The scope and priorities of the initiative were set by assessing the shelter's field needs regularly and by collecting proposals from volunteer employees, so the activities carried out are built on solutions that answer real needs. Decision-making and delivery are shared: the volunteering organisation coordinates, branch management and administrative services teams support operational planning, and volunteer employees carry out the work in the field.

Key parameters to consider

The base year is 2025 and the same process continued systematically through 2026, so the reported figures cover a two-year operating period rather than a launch campaign.

The model requires no additional investment and is based on the effective use of existing operational resources, which is what allows it to be sustained through corporate volunteering budgets and local partnerships.

The principal risks are the continuity of volunteer participation and the operational capacity of local partners, managed through regular coordination, internal communication and annual volunteering plans. The stated expansion path is other locations of the same business in the short term and group companies with a similar structure in the medium term.

Implementation and operations tips

Look for the match between an existing waste stream and an existing partner need before designing the activity. The model works because pallets and food surplus happen to be exactly what an animal shelter requires; the same logic applied elsewhere will produce a different activity.

Weigh what moves. Recording 6,181 kg of food surplus is what turned a well-intentioned habit into a reportable environmental result, and it costs nothing beyond the discipline of keeping the record.

Attach volunteering to a route rather than to a date. A scheduled delivery survives the loss of any individual volunteer, whereas an annual event does not.

Keep the model investment-free deliberately. The absence of a capital requirement is what allows another location to start next month rather than at the next budget cycle.