Posco focuses on corporate citizenship
![Posco employees stand in front of selective catalytic reduction facilities at Pohang Works. [POSCO]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2021/02/24/e594f4d4-884d-4087-a867-17c764e5d0f6.jpg)
Posco employees stand in front of selective catalytic reduction facilities at Pohang Works. [POSCO]
Posco ranked as the most-competitive steelmaker for 11 consecutive years in the World Class Steelmaker Rankings, announced by World Steel Dynamic, a global research institution for the steel industry.
S&P Global Platts also named Posco the winner in the “Steel Industry Leadership” category at the Global Metals Awards last year.
As an industry-leading company, Posco is making various efforts to improve ESG management. In 2018, Posco declared a management philosophy of “corporate citizenship”, highlighting its initiative for “building a better future together”.
In line with its management philosophy, Posco announced its “Corporate Citizenship Management Standards” in August, 2020, as a guideline for employees to put the idea of corporate citizenship into practice.
To shed light on the company’s endeavors for sustainable growth, Posco publishes the “Corporate Citizenship Report” every year, illustrating its performance in terms of corporate social responsibility and business.
Posco also addresses the climate change issue and its efforts to build a sustainable society through the climate action report, “Posco’s Dialogue for Climate Action”, which was first disclosed last December.
Moreover, Posco issued a five-year ESG bond in July, 2019. Some 500 million dollars raised through bond sales will fund investment related to environment energy solutions.
Posco is also pushing to go green.
Posco declared its goal to be carbon neutral by 2050, the first company to announce such a goal in the Korean steelmaking industry. To meet this ambitious target, Posco also outlined its vision to become a leading company in the hydrogen economy. It plans to secure core technologies and enhance its hydrogen production capacity by 2030 in order to eventually establish a hydrogen production capacity of 5 million tons through 2050.
The declaration is especially meaningful considering that Posco, a global top-tier steelmaker, pledged to commit to decarbonization despite the fact that carbon dioxide emissions are inevitable in the steelmaking industry.
Posco aims to further step up its game with innovative technologies such as carbon capture, utilization and storage and hydrogen-based steelmaking, improving its “low-carbon competitiveness” to provide green steel.
Acknowledging the importance of managing the supply chain in terms of ESG value, Posco has joined the Responsible Minerals Initiative, which makes it the first steelmaker to do so in Korea. RMI is a global initiative founded in 2008 that tracks the place of origin of responsible minerals and monitors producers.
While Posco is pushing forward its ESG agenda, other steelmakers are also working together to achieve carbon neutrality.
Posco, Hyundai Steel, Dongkuk Steel, KG Dongbu Steel, Seah Steel and Simpac gathered at the launching ceremony of the Green Steel Committee, joining hands to cut down greenhouse gas emission across the industry.
The Green Steel Committee is an industrial-academic-government cooperation group to discuss plans for carbon neutrality. Choi Jeong-woo, CEO of Posco, and Yonsei University Vice President Min Dong-joon are the chairpersons of the committee.
Furthermore, Posco announced a 1-trillion-won ($900-million) investment plan with the goal of reducing air pollutants.
Posco installed selective catalytic reduction facilities at its plants and invested more than 200 billion won to complete eight sealed raw material storage facilities, which prevent raw material particles from escaping into the atmosphere, at Pohang Works.
By Shin Ha-nee [shin.hanee@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
To write comments, please log in to one of the accounts.
Standards Board Policy (0/250자)