This Member Will get a Cost from Selling Sustainability

“I like the business and the individuals on this enterprise,” Akar says. “They’re obsessed with renewable vitality and wish their work to make a distinction.”

Akar, a senior member, has change into an energetic IEEE volunteer as properly, holding management positions. First she served as pupil department coordinator, then as a pupil chapter coordinator, after which as a member of a number of administrative our bodies together with the IEEE Younger Professionals committee.

Akar obtained this yr’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 vitality 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 vitality 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 vitality corporations. Amongst them was Talesun Photo voltaic in Suzhou, China, the place she was head of abroad advertising. She left to change into the gross sales and advertising director for Eko Renewable Vitality, in Istanbul.

In 2020 she based Innoses in Shanghai. The corporate makes batteries for electrical automobiles and customizes them for industrial, residential, and off-grid renewable vitality techniques 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 minimize down on air pollution and greenhouse fuel emissions,” Akar says. “That’s one thing we are able to all be ok with.”

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

Melting batteries is completed by heating them till their elements separate. Beneficial 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 completely different elements 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 technique tends to be higher for gathering cobalt and nickel, whereas shredding is healthier for recovering lithium and copper, Akar says.

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

“There are plenty of environmental considerations associated to battery utilization,” Akar says. “However, if the suitable recycling course of could be accomplished, batteries can be sustainable. The suitable course of may maintain air pollution and emissions low and shield the well being of staff and surrounding communities.”

Akar labored at a number of vitality corporations 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 change into extra sustainable, in 2021 Akar based AK Vitality Consulting in Istanbul. Via discussions with firm leaders, she discovered they “want steerage and help from somebody who understands not solely sustainable know-how but additionally one of the simplest ways renewable vitality might help the planet,” she says.

“My aim for the agency is straightforward: 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 raised perceive their sustainability targets. They determine areas the place corporations can enhance, assess the affect the really useful adjustments can have, and analysis the newest sustainable know-how. Her consulting agency additionally helps companies perceive how you can meet authorities compliance laws.

“By embracing sustainability, corporations can create constructive 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 purchasers change to renewable vitality, 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 pupil and serving as chair of her college’s pupil department. After graduating, she held different roles together with Area 8 pupil department coordinator, pupil chapter coordinator, and the area’s IEEE Girls in Engineering committee chair.

In her almost 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 energetic member of the IEEE Energy & Vitality Society and is a former IEEE PES liaison to the Girls in Engineering committee. She can also be a previous vice chair of the society’sGirls in Energy group, which helps profession development and schooling and offers networking alternatives.

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

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

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 may speak to about rising applied sciences and how you can make a distinction via Innoses,” she says. “I additionally obtained plenty of help from the group.”

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

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