To our stakeholders:
I am pleased to confirm that Standart reaffirms its support of the Ten Principles of the United Nations Global Compace in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption.
In this annual Communication on Progress we describe our actions to continually improve the intergration of the Global Comapct and its principles into our business strategy, culture and daily operations. We also commit to share this information with our stakeholders using our primary channels of communication.
Yours sincerely
Hüseyin CANKURTARAN
Chairman

Our most valuable asset is our employees that make our company one of the leading real estate valuation firms in Turkey. We respect the rights of our employees and we are committed to implement the human rights in the company. We apply an approach that encompasses all areas of working life from recruitment, performance assessment to terminating of employment.
At Standart, we also put great emphasis on equal pay for equal work. We are in the progress of setting up our promotion schedule and performance evolution codes in the company.
Assessment of our employees is not based on their religion, gender, language or political opinion but on their professional qualification and skills that required for a relevant position .
One of the areas that we are sensitive of is gender discrimination. We do not are not discriminate our employees in terms of gender, salary and promotion.
Every employee is entitled to compensated vacation in line with local regulation governing labor rights.
We believe that education is a key for our employees to realize their full potential .Three of our employees enrolled at a professional development course last year. All their expenses were shouldered by the company. In addition, we have provided to the students studying in the area of valuation and paid internship opportunities. In 2102, three interns had a chance to work at our company between 8 to 12 weeks.

We are planning to complete the company code of conducts related to human and labor rights and explicitly state human rights in it. In order to achieve it, we are forming a human resource department that is also responsible for completing a code of conducts in Human and Labor rights issues. The policy will state that all employees are given “Code of Conduct Induction Training” upon joining and refresher training every six months thereafter.

There have been no Human Rights violations identified by the Company's management.

Standart is commited to implement the UN Global compact in the area of Labor Rights. We support the ILO’s 1998 declaration as well as its four principles and rights at work.
Our company policy follows the rules set out by the Turkish Employment code which among other right states that Turkish workers have the right to unionize or join existing labor unions, there is a nominal 45-hour workweek, and the amount of overtime that employers may request is limited.
All activities related to social security and pension rules are regulated within the framework of the codes. Employees are insured by the state insurance and monthly premiums are calculated based on salary as required by law and employees' pensions are prepared in accordance with government regulations. We go beyond these laws because Standart also provides other non compulsory benefits such as transportation and meals or compensation.
The main goal is to provide tools conditions and mechanism for staff to perform assigned duties ,create social atmosphere, stimulate professional and academic growth. To archive achieve these aims, we do the following:
-Organize and finance social and recreational events for staff members;
-Encourage the employees to attend events and courses related to their work field and pay the fees of these events .In addition, we support our employees to become a member in professional associations ,obtaining and maintaining licensees and certifications such as Valuer Association of Turkey and Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyor;
- Provide free commuted service or reimbursement of travel expenses for our employees and give SIM cards and Mobile telephones.
Despite any incident related to workplace discrimination raised so far, we take this issue very seriously and are in the progress of setting up rules regarding work discrimination. None of the employees is a member of labor union as this issue is governed by the Labour Law No. 4857.

Our company points out that all these policies and rules are implemented properly. We are planning to establish a human resource department along with continuing to provide an orientation program for our new employees and prepare workshops regarding labor rights.

Our plan comprises two stages in terms of improving human resource capacity after an analysis of the current situation. In the first phase studies we:
-establish a human resource department
- establish quality management system
-set up placement and promotion standard

At Standard monitoring performance on the issue of labor rights, it is very important for to the company because of the relationship between a content workforce and high productivity. The management of the company tries to mitigate all issues with a proactive stance. As of the time of application, there was no incident of violations of the Global Compact Labor principals.

Standart is dedicated to implement the UN Global Compact in the area of Environmental Protection.
We are aware that a human being has enormous impact on the environment and unless we proactively take an action to protect our environment or at least mitigate the impact on environment, it might be too late to prevent environmental destruction.
The global warming is one of the environmental problems we have faced in recent times. In our role of reducing carbon emissions, which cause global warming, we actively advocate green building developments. As an appraisal company, we try to integrate green building features in our appraisal process. This is important because the connection between green building features and the financial benefits are not understood yet .
Our mission as an appraisal company is to raise the awareness of investors, occupiers and developers by pointing to the financial benefits of green buildings in our valuation reports . To achieve this aim, we encourage our employees to gain necessary qualifications such as LEED Green Associate, BREAM assessor, main green building rating systems. As a result , green buildings are to be valued more effectively and their benefits to be distinguished from non-green buildings.
In our office, we are taking all necessary steps to create an environmentally friendly environment. We are currently replacing office equipment with ones consuming less energy, “A” energy rating. Although, their payback period is a few years, we have already seen our electric bill has reduced %10 already. We also have sent the equipments to electronic waste recycling company . This practice is voluntary at the moment but in 2013, consumers must dispose electronic equipments according to new bylaw .
As an appraisal company, we consume significant amount of paper. Our aim is to reduce paper consumption by % 20 and recycle it as much as possible in our office. Unfortunately, we could not send our appraisal reports as a soft copy because of the bylaw but we are now using double sided printers in order to reduce consumption. Apart from printing hard copy valuation report, we are using soft copy of documents in our correspondence as much as possible.

In order to achieve our goals in terms of our environment policy, we are meeting with our employees and discussing the goals. Our next aim is to place recycling waste bins for plastic, paper , and glass. However, there is no municipality service to collect recycled waste yet in our area so we are making an enquiry how to overcome this problem.

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Standart is determined to implement the UN global Compact in the area of Anti-Corruption.
In line with current international and local laws and regulations ,Standart will not promise or offer to make any payment or gift to a government official or private party to influence them to act favorably towards us.
Turkey has signed and ratified several international treaties and conventions related to corruption including the United Nation’s Convention Against Corruption, OECD Anti-Bribery Convention and the Council of Europe Criminal Law Convention on Corruption. In addition, in accordance with Turkish Criminal Code No. 5237 of 2005 as well as Law No. 3628 Concerning the Declaration of Assets and Combating Bribery Standart has made a private and public commitment to anti-corruption.
Moreover, after Turkey’s EU membership process started, the civil society is has been very active in fighting against corruption in Turkey including the Transparency Association (TI Turkey), the Association for Combating Corruption and the Association for the Protection of Citizens' Taxes (VAVEK). There are also some associations focused on good governance such as the Corporate Governance Association of Turkey and the Corporate Social Responsibility Association of Turkey.
In particular, the necessity for transparent real estate markets in which we are operate is increasingly recognized by government and industry bodies. While steady progress in real estate transparency has been made over the past two years, much still needs to be done.
There is a particular research and focused body of research encompassing the global real estate sector relating to market transparency carried out by Jones Lang LaSalle .The report is updated every two years, charting the steady progress in real estate transparency across the globe since 1999. In its seventh edition in 2012 the report indicates that Turkey shows the world’s greatest improvement However, there is still a long way to go as Turkey remains listed as a semi transparent country.

Internally, we plan to create a set of rules and standards for our employees, as understanding anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws is not always easy. Therefore our employees will be familiar with the rules described in the policy and regularly refresh their understanding of relevant law and regulations. The rules and standards will outline acceptable and non-acceptable behaviors to ensure compliance with anti-corruption laws, This includes compliance with all laws, domestic and foreign, prohibiting improper payments, gifts or inducements of any kind to and received from any person, including officials in the private or public sector, customers and suppliers.

Standart has not been involved in any legal cases, rulings or other events related to corruption and bribery.