Sürdürülebilir Çeviri

Project Background and Purpose

Have you ever paused while reading an article, listening to a talk, or watching a video on sustainability and thought, “What is the Turkish equivalent of this term?” For us, this is almost a professional reflex. As translators, our minds are wired to catch every word and focus on finding the right equivalent. In recent years, solving this puzzle has become increasingly challenging, as translation demands related to sustainability have grown significantly. As a company, as we became directly engaged with the subject through our social responsibility efforts, began actively working toward three of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and completed global and local sustainability certification trainings across the organization—from senior management to our internship team—we realized that while many environmental, climate, and ecology glossaries exist, there is no comprehensive and reliable resource dedicated specifically to sustainability terminology.

Recognizing this gap was not enough; we needed a foundation we could rely on with full confidence in its accuracy. That is why we started from the field. We attended four different sustainability summits and asked over 1,000 participants what they considered to be the Turkish equivalent of the frequently used industry term greenwashing. Everyone was familiar with the subject, had a strong command of English, and was a native speaker of Turkish. We expected a single, clear translation—but instead received ten different answers. Far from finding common ground, it felt as though we were speaking entirely different languages at the same table.

We kept trying. We conducted a new survey on carbon emission. The debate over whether it should be rendered as “salım, salınım, or emisyon” continued for weeks. When we completed our trilogy with downcycling, it became clear that the issue was not merely which word to choose, but how that term functions as an equivalent—its context, connotations, and manner of use.

Ultimately, this entire process boiled down to a key realization: If we are experiencing confusion, it is not merely our own challenge, but a shared issue across the entire industry. And someone had to step in and take ownership of the issue. And that is exactly how the Sürdürülebilir Çeviri Project came to life—its origin story.

At the heart of our project is a commitment to presenting each term together with its references, examining it from a linguistic perspective, testing alternatives, and validating the final equivalent. Our efforts aim for far more than individual word choices: To help create a shared language of sustainability.