Corporate sustainability: A Case study in the Turkish banking sector

Sustainability is one of the most important topics on today's agenda. Problems such as global climate change, environmental degradation and social inequality make sustainability even more important. In addition, from the perspective of the global financial system, banks are institutions that have important responsibilities towards society and the environment. Therefore, sustainability has become a very important issue for banks. Banks in Turkey are also taking important steps towards sustainability. The Banks Association of Turkey (BAT) published its "Sustainability Strategic Plan" in 2022. This plan sets out the sustainability goals and strategies of Turkish banks. There are some globally recognized reporting frameworks that guide companies in corporate sustainability reporting. In our study, these reports were utilized to determine the sustainability criteria. This study examines the attitudes of banks, which sustain and directly or indirectly affect firms financially, towards sustainability and corporate sustainability. Banks closely follow global developments and implement these developments rapidly. In this study, the integrated reports of 7 banks operating in Turkey for the years 2020, 2021, 2022 are analyzed. In order to determine the sustainability criteria, GRI G4 Reporting Framework, UNEP-FI indicators, UNGC International standards and Aras et al. (2021), Sobhani et al. (2012) were taken into consideration. In total, 7 dimensions and 75 unique criteria were identified. In the study, content analysis was performed from the integrated reports of the banks. As a result of the analysis of three years with the data generated by content analysis, three different weighting methods, MEREC, CILOS and CCSD, were used and banks were ranked according to their performance according to ARAS, WASPAS and COBRA methods. . According to the findings obtained as a result of the analyzes, it was concluded that commercial banks had higher sustainability performance than public banks during and after the pandemic period.