The meaning of a corporation redefined as a member of the social community
Efforts for biodiversity conservation and environmental problem-solving, such as marine forest (seaweed forest) restoration and the Clean Ocean Volunteer Corps
Starting with the "Environmental Report" it published in 1995, the first in Korea, POSCO issues an annual corporate performance report on sustainability under the name "Corporate Citizenship Report." In 2022, it not only overhauled its management system by launching as the steel-business company POSCO but also published "The Corporate Citizen POSCO Story, Together with the Citizens of Pohang," sharing 55 years of a history of coexistence with the Pohang community. POSCO has contributed to Gyeongbuk's Pohang growing into an industrial city of 500,000 people and is a company responsible for about 18% of Pohang's fiscal revenue. It provides local-community education, support for venture companies utilizing the POSCO Group network, and industry-academia-research collaboration infrastructure.
Reading Sustainability Reports, "POSCO Edition," is divided into Parts 1 and 2: Part 1 covers POSCO's management philosophy and environmental-conservation activities, and Part 2 covers its community-based social-contribution activities.
The Corporate Citizenship Management Philosophy
The year 2023 marked "the 5th anniversary of POSCO's proclamation of its corporate-citizenship management philosophy," and it simultaneously commemorated the 10th anniversary of the "POSCO 1% Foundation" and the 20th anniversary of the founding of the "POSCO Talent Volunteer Corps." In March 2018, POSCO proclaimed "a corporate citizen that develops together with others" as its management philosophy, in order to "join in solving social problems and to build the prosperity of humanity and a better world."
Centered on this management philosophy, it built five corporate-citizenship brands:
• Green with POSCO (a company that protects the environment together)
• Together with POSCO (a company you want to do business with)
• Challenge with POSCO (a company you want to grow with)
• Life with POSCO (a company that builds the future together)
• Community with POSCO (a company that stands with the region)
[Nine ESG focus areas linked to the Green Framework]
Through a "double-materiality assessment," POSCO derived 13 material issues and manages the risks of the steel business. Taking "GREEN"—which carries the meaning of eco-friendly future materials—as the keyword of its ESG management, it established five ESG strategies, set a Green Framework, and derived focus areas to pursue a variety of activities.
Environmental Conservation for Future Generations
In its double-materiality assessment, POSCO selected responding to climate change as its most important issue and established a "2050 Carbon Neutrality Roadmap." To reduce greenhouse gases, it is pursuing the development of coking-coal-reduction technology and low-HMR (Hot Metal Ratio) technology. By 2022, POSCO's emissions recorded 70.2 million tons, a 10.9% reduction from the base-year emissions of 78.8 million tons, and it improved its greenhouse-gas intensity to 2.05 tCO2e/ton, a 2.1% reduction from the base-year figure of 2.09 tCO2e/ton.
['Triton,' an artificial reef installed in the sea south of Ulleungdo]
POSCO has continued its marine-forest creation project over the past decade or so. In 2000, together with the Research Institute of Industrial Science & Technology, it developed "Triton," an artificial-reef material that recycles a steel-production byproduct (slag). Triton reefs are being installed along coasts where "whitening events" (barren-ground / gaetnokeum) occur; to date, about 7,000 of them have been installed along roughly 30 coastlines.
[Changes in seaweed biomass after the creation of the Ulleungdo marine forest]
In 2020, it created a Triton marine forest of about 0.4 hectares in the southern part of Ulleungdo. Three years of follow-up management showed that "the seaweed biomass and biodiversity of the coast increased." Through the use of Triton, eco-friendly marine fertilizer, and the development of new-type artificial reefs, POSCO plans to contribute to restoring marine ecosystems and increasing fishers' income.
*Triton: POSCO's artificial reef brand. Triton artificial reefs have been verified as safe through the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries' assessments of marine environmental stability and marine biological food safety.
**Triton Reef: Due to its high content of minerals beneficial to the marine ecosystem, such as calcium and iron, it promotes the growth of seaweed and has effects such as boosting marine plankton proliferation and facilitating seaweed spore attachment, thereby contributing to increased biodiversity and the restoration of marine ecosystems.
by Editor N