On the 11th, LG Chem announced that it issued a Sustainability Report containing the results of implementing sustainable management and ESG (environmental, social, governance). This is the 16th year for this report and it focuses on detailed practices for achieving 2050 Net-Zero. It contains the voices of members who are acting out the sustainability goals within LG Chem.

 

Last year, LG Chem increased implementation of renewable energy in the environment sector, while increasing the waste recycling rate. The use of renewable energy of LG Chem in 2021 was 344,528MWh (megawatt/hour, energy unit), which is equivalent to the amount that can be used by about 260,000 people for an entire year Up until last year, LG Chem used only 1,760MWh of renewable energy, and then began to implement renewable energy in earnest from 2021. In particular, it entered a renewable power purchase agreement (PPA) in China and it is currently operating the entire value chain for battery materials in China with renewable energy.

 

LG Chem is raising its waste recycling rate every year for the sake of resource circulation and in 2021, it raised its waste recycling rate by 7%P compared to the previous year to reach 85%. As there has been an increase in customers directly requesting eco-friendly management, LG Chem is building a circular economy systems, and it plans to switch electricity used by all of its operations worldwide to renewable energy 100% by 2050.

 

There was also a big jump in investments for environment, health and safety (EH&S) for the social sector. The amount of investments in EH&S in 2021 by LG Chem was 292.7 billion KRW, which is a 62.3% increase compare to the previous year that was at 180.4 billion KRW. LG Chem completed precision diagnosis of high-risk processes and facilities for its 37 workplaces worldwide from 2020 and it is continuing investments for safety diagnosis and making improvements to outdated high-risk processes and facilities and facility investments for compliance to environmental laws and regulations.

 

In order to construct a sustainable supply chain, LG Chem plans to conduct LCA (life cycle assessment) on the environmental impact of all processes ranging from production to indirect areas (Scope 3) that includes materials, transportation, disposal, etc. Last year, it revised the ESG assessment method of suppliers based on practice and completed the construction of a proprietary supply chain assessment of GHG emissions, energy saving, safety and health, human rights, ethical management, etc. Based on the assessment results, it plans to provide support for facilities and systems, safety and health, etc. of partners to strengthen the overall supply chain ESG capacities.

 

In terms of governance, LG Chem newly organized the ESG Committee to provide the platform for long-term ESG management, and also installed an Internal Transaction Committee to ensure fairness of transactions and management transparency. The Board of Directors also appointed two female outside directors this year as part of its efforts to enhance diversity of its members.

 

Furthermore, LG Chem also included its ESG activities of last year such as GHG emissions reduction strategies, construction of a circular economy system, transforming to a sustainable business portfolio, expansion the scope of supply chain management in its sustainability report.

 

LG Chem Chief Executive Officer Hak-cheol Shin commented, “Last year, we declared that we would invest 10 trillion KRW by 2025 in the three next growth engines of eco-friendly materials, battery materials, and global innovative new drugs,” while adding, “LG Chem will develop and transition from a traditional chemical company to a science company based on sustainability.”