This Member Will get a Cost from Selling Sustainability

Ever since she was an undergraduate scholar in Turkey, Simay Akar has been interested by renewable power know-how. As she progressed by means of her profession after college, she selected to not develop the know-how herself however to put it on the market. She has held advertising and marketing positions with main power firms, and now she runs two startups.

One in every of Akar’s firms develops and manufactures lithium-ion batteries and recycles them. The opposite consults with companies to assist them obtain their sustainability targets.

“I really like the trade and the individuals on this enterprise,” Akar says. “They’re captivated with renewable power and need their work to make a distinction.”

Akar, a senior member, has grow to be an lively IEEE volunteer as properly, holding management positions. First she served as scholar department coordinator, then as a scholar chapter coordinator, after which as a member of a number of administrative our bodies together with the IEEE Younger Professionals committee.

Akar acquired this 12 months’s IEEE Theodore W. Hissey Excellent Younger Skilled Award for her “management and inspiration of younger professionals with vital contributions within the technical fields of photovoltaics and sustainable power storage.” The award is sponsored by IEEE Younger Professionals and the IEEE Photonics and Energy & Vitality societies.

Akar says she’s honored to get the award as a result of “Theodore W. Hissey’s dedication to supporting younger professionals throughout all of IEEE’s huge fields is really commendable.” Hissey, who died in 2023, was an IEEE Life Fellow and IEEE director emeritus who supported the IEEE Younger Professionals neighborhood for years.

“This award acknowledges the potential we maintain to make a major affect,” Akar says, “and it motivates me to maintain pushing the boundaries in sustainable power and encourage others to do the identical.”

A profession in sustainable know-how

After graduating with a level within the social affect of know-how from Center East Technical College, in Ankara, Turkey, Akar labored at a number of power firms. Amongst them was Talesun Photo voltaic in Suzhou, China, the place she was head of abroad advertising and marketing. She left to grow to be the gross sales and advertising and marketing director for Eko Renewable Vitality, in Istanbul.

In 2020 she based Innoses in Shanghai. The corporate makes batteries for electrical autos and customizes them for business, residential, and off-grid renewable power programs corresponding to photo voltaic panels. Moreover, Innoses recycles lithium-ion batteries, which in any other case find yourself in landfills, leaching hazardous chemical substances.

“Recycling batteries helps lower down on air pollution and greenhouse fuel emissions,” Akar says. “That’s one thing we will all be ok with.”

She says there are two foremost strategies of recycling batteries: melting and shredding.

Melting batteries is completed by heating them till their elements separate. Helpful metals together with cobalt and nickel are collected and cleaned to be reused in new batteries.

A shredding machine with high-speed rotating blades cuts batteries into small items. The totally different parts are separated and handled with options to interrupt them down additional. Lithium, copper, and different metals are collected and cleaned to be reused.

The melting methodology tends to be higher for amassing cobalt and nickel, whereas shredding is healthier for recovering lithium and copper, Akar says.

“This occurs as a result of every methodology focuses on totally different elements of the battery, so some metals are simpler to extract relying on how they’re processed,” she says. The chosen methodology will depend on elements such because the composition of the batteries, the effectivity of the recycling course of, and the specified metals to be recovered.

“There are a whole lot of environmental issues associated to battery utilization,” Akar says. “However, if the precise recycling course of might be accomplished, batteries may also be sustainable. The precise course of might preserve air pollution and emissions low and shield the well being of staff and surrounding communities.”

Akar labored at a number of power firms together with Talesun Photo voltaic in Suzhou, China, which manufactures photo voltaic cells just like the one she is holding.Simay Akar

Serving to companies with sustainability

After noticing many companies have been struggling to grow to be extra sustainable, in 2021 Akar based AK Vitality Consulting in Istanbul. By discussions with firm leaders, she discovered they “want steerage and help from somebody who understands not solely sustainable know-how but in addition one of the best ways renewable power may also help the planet,” she says.

“My aim for the agency is easy: Be a power for change and create a future that’s sustainable and affluent for everybody,” she says.

Akar and her employees meet with enterprise leaders to higher perceive their sustainability targets. They determine areas the place firms can enhance, assess the affect the beneficial adjustments can have, and analysis the most recent sustainable know-how. Her consulting agency additionally helps companies perceive meet authorities compliance laws.

“By embracing sustainability, firms can create optimistic social, environmental, and financial affect whereas thriving in a quickly altering world,” Akar says. “The very best a part of my job is seeing actual change occur. Watching my shoppers swap to renewable power, undertake eco-friendly practices, and hit their inexperienced targets is sort of a pat on the again.”

Serving on IEEE boards and committees

Akar has been a devoted IEEE volunteer since becoming a member of the group in 2007 as an undergraduate scholar and serving as chair of her college’s scholar department. After graduating, she held different roles together with Area 8 scholar department coordinator, scholar chapter coordinator, and the area’s IEEE Ladies in Engineering committee chair.

In her practically 20 years as a volunteer, Akar has been a member of a number of IEEE boards and committees together with the Younger Professionals committee, the Technical Actions Board, and the Nominations and Appointments Committee for top-level positions.

She is an lively member of the IEEE Energy & Vitality Society and is a former IEEE PES liaison to the Ladies in Engineering committee. She can be a previous vice chair of the society’sLadies in Energy group, which helps profession development and schooling and supplies networking alternatives.

“My volunteering experiences have helped me acquire a deep understanding of how IEEE operates,” she says. “I’ve gathered invaluable information, and the work I’ve achieved has been extremely fulfilling.”

As a member of the IEEE–Eta Kappa Nu honor society, Akar has mentored members of the subsequent technology of technologists. She additionally served as a mentor within the IEEE Member and Geographic Actions Volunteer Management Coaching Program, which supplies members with sources and an summary of IEEE, together with its tradition and mission. This system additionally affords individuals coaching in administration and management abilities.

Akar says her experiences as an IEEE member have helped form her profession. When she transitioned from working as a marketer to being an entrepreneur, she joined IEEE Entrepreneurship, ultimately serving as its vice chair of merchandise. She additionally was chair of the Area 10 entrepreneurship committee.

“I had engineers I might speak to about rising applied sciences and make a distinction by means of Innoses,” she says. “I additionally acquired a whole lot of help from the group.”

Akar says she is dedicated to IEEE’s mission of advancing know-how for humanity. She at the moment chairs the IEEE Humanitarian Know-how Board’s greatest practices and tasks committee. She is also chair of the IEEE MOVE world committee. The cell outreach car program supplies communities affected by pure disasters with energy and Web entry.

“By my management,” Akar says, “I hope to contribute to the event of revolutionary options that enhance the well-being of communities worldwide.”