This Member Will get a Cost from Selling Sustainability

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

Akar, a senior member, has change into an lively 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 12 months’s IEEE Theodore W. Hissey Excellent Younger Skilled Award for her “management and inspiration of younger professionals with important 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 & Power 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 actually commendable.” Hissey, who died in 2023, was an IEEE Life Fellow and IEEE director emeritus who supported the IEEE Younger Professionals group for years.

“This award acknowledges the potential we maintain to make a big 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 firms. Amongst them was Talesun Photo voltaic in Suzhou, China, the place she was head of abroad advertising and marketing. She left to change into the gross sales and advertising and marketing director for Eko Renewable Power, 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 vitality methods resembling 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 are able to all be ok with.”

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

Melting batteries is finished by heating them till their components separate. Priceless 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 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 technique tends to be higher for accumulating cobalt and nickel, whereas shredding is best for recovering lithium and copper, Akar says.

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

“There are quite a lot of environmental considerations associated to battery utilization,” Akar says. “However, if the fitting recycling course of might be accomplished, batteries may also be sustainable. The correct course of may hold air pollution and emissions low and defend the well being of employees and surrounding communities.”

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

“My aim for the agency is straightforward: Be a pressure 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 advisable modifications can have, and analysis the newest sustainable know-how. Her consulting agency additionally helps companies perceive tips on how to 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 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 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 & Power 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 achieve a deep understanding of how IEEE operates,” she says. “I’ve accrued invaluable information, and the work I’ve performed has been extremely fulfilling.”

As a member of the IEEE–Eta Kappa Nu honor society, Akar has mentored members of the following technology of technologists. She additionally served as a mentor within the IEEE Member and Geographic Actions Volunteer Management Coaching Program, which offers members with assets and an summary of IEEE, together with its tradition and mission. This system additionally presents members 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, finally serving as its vice chair of merchandise. She additionally was chair of the Area 10 entrepreneurship committee.

“I had engineers I may discuss to about rising applied sciences and tips on how to make a distinction by means of Innoses,” she says. “I additionally obtained quite a lot of assist 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 Expertise Board’s finest practices and tasks committee. She is also chair of the IEEE MOVE international 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 progressive options that enhance the well-being of communities worldwide.”