We sat down with Umutcan Duman, the featured Green.Org Person Of The Week, the Co-Founder and CEO of Evreka, a SaaS platform built to reshape the waste management business and keep more resources in the supply chain.
Tell us a little bit about you, your background, and your current role:
I graduated from Middle East Technical University in the Department of Industrial Engineering. Before the foundation of Evreka, I was working as a business development assistant for Oracle in Turkey, and then for a human resources solutions startup for about 2 years. I developed my business development and entrepreneurship skills in the Turkish Entrepreneurship Foundation. Currently, I am responsible for business development activities and investor relations at Evreka.
What is a fun fact about you?
When we founded Evreka, we tried to get into the garbage containers and try to understand the existing problems better. In addition, we were chasing garbage trucks.
Why do you think climate change and sustainability is such an important topic today?
Actually, the issue of the climate change is always an important one. Just now, our awareness has increased even more on this issue, and so the future is now. If we can consume and manage our waste in a more planned and environmentally friendly way, we can do many things without consuming beyond our limits. As a human race, we are starting to take quick actions by implementing technological solutions to support the challenges we face,
What do you envision your industry looking like 10 years from now?
I believe that waste management will be compatible with resource management at many points. I think that in the future, most of the waste will not be as harmful as today. Because the manufacturers will make their production by foreseeing this and we will obtain new resources from these wastes by ensuring their recycling after the products are consumed. And the biggest part that excites me is that these processes will be done completely digitally.
What can the average person do to make a difference?
One of the most important rules to make a difference is to listen and examine the existing situation and to combine the most important points suitable for this existing situation. Of course, this process can be done with a team established with the right people.
Green.Org is a television show, podcast, social media, and news platform, hosted by Dylan Welch, that highlights climate change scientists, renewable energy experts, and clean tech entrepreneurs by giving them a voice in the mainstream media. The Green podcast highlights leading experts in cleantech, sustainability, media, finance, and real estate. Tune in and subscribe to the podcast on Apple or Spotify to listen to interviews with leading cleantech and sustainable experts. If you are interested in being featured on Green, click HERE.
