POSCO FUTURE M

POSCO Chemical published a corporate citizenship report outlining its Environmental, Social, and Corporate Government (ESG) performance and strategy, including how the company is tackling climate change and enhancing safety management.
POSCO Chemical unveiled the results of its sustainable management for 2019-2020 in a report the company published on June 30, 2021. The company introduces major activities and data by ESG sectors, while enhancing information disclosure by applying SASB standards, a global accounting standard for sustainable management.
*SASB (Sustainability Accounting Standards Board) : A standard made by the SASB in the US that enables investors to compare important ESG performance by industry
In this year’s report, POSCO Chemical selected the response to climate change and reinforced safety practices at its locations as core issues closely watched by stakeholders and introduced the company’s performance in detail through sustainability focus areas.
For its climate change response, POSCO Chemical focused on the development of technologies for cathode and anode materials, essential materials for secondary cells that are capable of transforming the green mobility industry, and contributed to carbon-neutral practices while enhancing sustainability.
POSCO Chemical achieved an impressive accomplishment, developing core battery materials including high-nickel NCMA cathode materials that boast of a driving range of over 500km on a single charge, anode materials made with artificial graphite, which extends battery life, and anode with low-volume expansion that improves charging speed and stability. The company is also developing silicon anode materials and solid-state battery materials that are capable of storing four times the amount of energy that is stored in conventional batteries.
Using needle cokes, the by-product of coal from steelworks, POSCO Chemical is pushing ahead with the development of production technology for electrode rods used in electric furnaces. Electrode rods can produce molten iron by melting scrap metal, enabling the production of environment-friendly steel.

The company also presented the reduction of greenhouse gases as an important aspect of environmental performance. POSCO Chemical operates a solar power facility that generates 123,000 kWh yearly in its Sejong anode material plant in an effort to use renewable energy more. The company is also adopting more EVs as its company vehicles and setting up on-premise charging stations. In recognition of the commitment to switch to environmentally friendly fuels and to improve the energy efficiency of company facilities, POSCO Chemical was named as an outstanding company with excellent greenhouse gas reduction records in a joint Korea-EU emissions trading system project organized by the Delegation of the European Union to Korea and the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
The formation of a circular economy by means of recycling resources is another accomplishment of POSCO Chemical. The company earned a circular resource certificate aimed at turning by-products from anode material plants, such as graphite dust and fine-grained limestone, which have been discarded as waste up until recently, into high value-adding materials. The company recycled 8,208 tons of refractories, a material used in steel facilities, in 2020, and it plans to expand that amount to exceed 13,000 tons this year.
The company also intensified its safety management system. Centered on the Safety and Disaster Prevention Center that oversees safety management, each business division has set up independent bodies that are dedicated to safety management. POSCO Chemical designated 1,200 places in company locations as safety inspection centers and introduced a preliminary inspection activity called hold for five seconds. Forty-five employees earned Industrial Safety Practitioner certificates in 2020, enhancing the corporate expertise on safety.
In an effort to improve corporate governance, POSCO Chemical increased the number of outside directors from two to three, and enhanced diversity in the BOD. In June this year, the company disclosed the corporate governance report for the first time. Starting in 2022, the company said that it plans to improve efficiency in decision making by running a Recommendation Committee for Outside Directors and an Audit Committee.
In the CEO message, POSCO Chemical CEO Min Kyung-zoon said, “POSCO Chemical will become a top-tier global company with differentiated competitiveness that achieves both social and economic performance in a balanced manner. We will respond enthusiastically to climate change and bolster sustainability by making more aggressive investments based on the technological development of sustainable secondary cells.”
POSCO Chemical seeks to proactively implement ESG management in line with the international trend to strengthen corporate social responsibility and the philosophy of the POSCO Group to uphold corporate citizenship. To see the latest corporate citizenship report (put link here), visit POSCO Chemical homepage.

(Photo) The corporate citizenship report POSCO Chemical published on June 30, 2021. It illustrates the key accomplishments of ESG management by using data-driven approach.