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Morning features and interviews. A morning story over a cup.
Korea translates the G (Governance) of ESG as "control structure (jibae gujo)" and uses it that way. But if we translate "control structure" back into English, it is not governance. "Control structure" literally means a company's "decision-making and profit-distribution structure" itself. The globally accepted meaning of governance is closer to the conduct and processes of the people who lead a company. ESG.ONL's "In Search of Governance" series introduces cases of domestic and overseas companies with good governance, for a more accurate understanding and use of governance.A Strategy for Survival and VictoryFor Toss, culture is both a "survival strategy" and a "victory strategy." Toss's corporate culture completely fuses culture and work, and operates from the perspective that it must be able to provide practical help so that work can be done well. Because it thought, decided, and worked based on organizational culture even when the organization was struggling and even when it was shaken, the organizational culture has not been neglected even in the process of growing into a large-scale organization as it is now, and continuous experience management is being carried out.At Toss, arrival time is as you please, and there is no limit on the number of vacation days. There are no ranks or titles either. Even the CEO is called "Seung-gun-nim," aiming for a horizontal culture. A team's leader is not a "manager" who gives orders, but plays the role of a "facilitator" who helps team members effectively achieve goals. Although it is an organization without managers, each team member communicates with colleagues and finds "my work" on their own. It gives complete freedom but assigns complete responsibility, so that everyone becomes both a practitioner and a "Directly Responsible Individual (DRI)."The transparent disclosure of a company's operations, policies, and risks is one condition of good governance. And Toss shares practically all information company-wide. At every affiliate, a "Weekly Alliant Meeting" and "Weekly QnA" are held on a weekly basis, and everything from the corporate-card expenses each person used to each team's work status is shared through the weekly mail. You might wonder, "What if personal information leaks?" or "Is it okay to disclose even this kind of information?" But through such actions, Toss sought to build a high level of information-sharing infrastructure and mutual trust. The idea is to make the information needed for decision-making already exist in one's head, so that a suitable solution can be found easily.*DRI: a concept borrowed from Apple — a directly responsible individual. That is, a concept designed so that the most expert person on a particular task becomes the person responsible for the decision.Weekly QnA: a team-leader Q&A session where you can ask the team leader anything you are curious about regarding the Toss team.[Lee Seung-gun, CEO of Toss © Viva Republica]The Obsession with Transparency Hidden in Customer Service TooToss is a company that provides financial services. Therefore, a user cannot but worry about personal-information protection — how their personal information is being used, whether destruction is properly carried out when they leave the service, and so on. Toss regards obsession with customer value as a core value, and considers customers' information protection and security the top priority. So Toss newly established a personal-information-protection website where personal-information-protection activities can be checked at a glance. Anyone can easily access this website through the Toss app and website. Centered on Toss's five core principles for personal-information protection, it separated the personal-information-handling policy into a distinct menu to resolve customers' questions about where their personal information is used, and it also organizes and introduces the activities of the "Toss Data Protection Compliance Advisory Committee." From January 2023, it launched the "Personal Information Reassurance Report" service, so that customers can check at any time the record of personal information looked up during service use. In 2023, Toss also carried out a project, centered on the Toss white-hacker team, to hack Toss within 48 hours. And it disclosed the entire process of this project through YouTube. To state the conclusion, the Toss white-hacker team failed to hack Toss within 48 hours. Red Teaming is carried out in various situations — at leading IT companies and in many countries' military-training situations — to inspect and supplement an organization's strategy, but disclosing this entire process to everyone is exceptional. It may have been a for-show internal project. Even so, such activity by Toss further highlighted the point that, for good governance, transparent disclosure of a company's operations, policies, and risks is necessary.*Toss Data Protection Compliance Advisory Committee: an independent body within Toss launched in November 2022, playing the role of monitoring and controlling whether Toss is properly complying with data-related laws.Red Teaming: the act of finding problems or vulnerabilities from a different perspective and intentionally attacking them, in order to inspect and supplement an organization's strategy. It originated from the virtual "Red Team" that the US organized to identify and analyze the vulnerabilities of the friendly Blue Team during mock military-training exercises.In an environment like the fintech industry, where the uncertainty of technology and the market itself can act as a crisis, the value that transparency holds is even greater. Having declared "bold information transparency and accessibility," Toss now looks beyond a unicorn toward a decacorn.by Editor L
When talking about the Earth's future, one cannot skip "climate change." Until a few years ago we used the term "climate change," but amid concerns that it lacked a sense of crisis, we now use the word "climate crisis." Since the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, more practical concepts and goals such as 1.5°C and carbon-footprint management have been emphasized, and various stakeholders — each country's government, companies, non-governmental organizations, academia, and more — are seeking measures to respond to climate change. In this process, climate tech is playing an important role. Climate tech is a concept encompassing all strategic approaches to create a sustainable environment through technological innovation and to confront climate change and its aftermath. Climate-tech companies provide products and services through the development of technologies that will help respond to the climate crisis — renewable energy, increased energy efficiency, carbon capture and storage technology, eco-friendly building materials, sustainable agriculture, carbon-footprint reduction solutions, and more. ESG.ONL, today's magazine for tomorrow, seeks to introduce leading climate-tech brands through the "Climate Companion (Gihu Donghaeng)" series.More Than 7 of Every 10 Natural Disasters Are Related to "Water"Water is a substance that directly affects our life and survival. And it is also part of our environment that is being most greatly affected by the climate crisis. Fundamentally, climate change disrupts weather patterns and causes severe weather anomalies. The availability of water becomes hard to predict, and serious impacts arise — water shortages and the destruction of water-supply networks. In particular, we must not overlook that children are being greatly affected by this change.According to "Water and the Global Climate Crisis: 10 Things You Should Know," released by UNICEF in March 2024, about 74% of the natural disasters that occurred from 2001 to 2018 were water-related, including droughts and floods, and the frequency and intensity of such events are expected to increase due to climate change. And as a result, by 2040 about 1 in 4 children will live in an area experiencing extreme water shortage. A not-easy future awaits adults too. The floods and sea-level rise that will occur due to climate change can pollute land and water-supply networks and will damage water-resource and sanitation infrastructure. Insufficient drinking-water resources, droughts, and wildfires will destabilize the local communities where we have set down roots.[A water-shortage campaign photo © UNICEF]Interest in sustainable water management is gathering. And Gradiant (hereafter "Gradiant"), which seeks to respond to water-related problems, was born. Gradiant is a company that deals in "water technology," and it has proven its corporate value by providing the solutions needed to confront the climate crisis."Gradiant," the Expert Group That Best Knows Water's Impact and SolutionsA key problem Gradiant discovered was that about 10% of the water used worldwide is used by industry, and that about 70% of the wastewater resulting from it is not properly treated. Gradiant is attempting a multi-angle approach to improving the water-use environment: reducing water use itself by improving water-use processes, raising the recycling rate with technology that sorts metals and resources out of wastewater, and purifying polluted water through desalination technology so it can be used again.[Gradiant co-founders Prakash Govindan and Anurag Bajpayee © Forbes]Why are Gradiant's technology and approach recognized as a new approach to water management? Each day, Gradiant reduces water use by about 650 million liters, recovers 10,500 kg of useful water resources, and regenerates 850 million liters of wastewater. With these results, it shows direct environmental-improvement solutions — saving 1,500 megawatts of power per hour each day and reducing 950 tons of carbon emissions.Gradiant's start was a team composed of internationally recognized experts and engineers. Anurag Bajpayee and Prakash Govindan, who obtained their PhDs at MIT, founded it together. For his "research on industrial seawater desalination and water treatment," which is the foundation of Gradiant's technology, Bajpayee was recognized by Scientific American (founded in 1845, the longest continuously published magazine in the US) as a scientist who devised one of the "10 Ideas That Will Change the World." Govindan co-developed one of Gradiant's flagship products, the Carrier Gas Extraction (CGE) system. Having grown up in India, the two watched the impact of water shortage on individuals and communities closer than anyone as they grew up. Students who were researching water purification at MIT founded a company to solve that problem. And this company unveiled a technology that recycles 98% of polluted water and purifies it with 2% new water. Co-founder Bajpayee says, "We cannot eliminate dependence on water, but if we greatly reduce it, we can increase sustainability."[A Gradiant solution © Gradiant]Gradiant's AchievementsGradiant believes water-resource problems can be solved with reasonable technology and human-resource solutions. It smoothly designs end-to-end solutions running from design to manufacturing to management, along with a proprietary AI platform, and provides customized services to various industries — semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, F&B, oil refining and chemicals, and even textiles.According to what Gradiant revealed through a 2023 Forbes interview, since 2020, through a project for the pharmaceutical company GSK in Singapore, it has extracted about 5 tons of waste from the wastewater generated each day and raised the amount of reused water. With the crude-oil-development company "Schlumberger," it signed a contract to extract, from brine rather than rock, the lithium used in lithium batteries. Based on such achievements, Gradiant is said to have achieved more than $200 million in revenue and more than $500 million in new contracts in 2023. Operating 20 branches worldwide and attracting a total of $400 million in investment to raise its corporate value to $1 billion, Gradiant is confidently establishing itself as a company that shows innovation and leadership in climate tech, and in the water-technology field within it.Four billion people — two-thirds of the world's population — experience serious water shortage for at least one month each year. Due to the climate crisis, humanity's water-related difficulties are expected to grow. The time has come to pay attention to the scope and effect of the solutions Gradiant provides, and the way they contribute to solving water-resource problems.by Editor L
Launch of "Pulmuone Gigusikdan," a sustainable-food specialty brand, to foster a future growth engineIntroduction of a professional-management system for management transparencyPulmuone's Sustainable Management 1. GigusikdanPulmuone first began at "Pulmuone Farm," established in 1955 by the late director Won Kyung-sun. At the time, Pulmuone Farm played the role of a community living together with those who had nowhere to go, including war orphans, and in 1976 it established "Jeongnonghoe," Korea's first organic-farmer organization, working to spread organic agriculture. Later, in 1981, "Pulmuone Farm Pollution-Free Produce Direct Store," Korea's first organic-produce shop selling the organic crops produced by Jeongnonghoe, opened its doors, and this small vegetable shop is the beginning of "Pulmuone," now a beloved and respected company in Korea that also strives for the globalization of right food.[An image of Gigusikdan products launched in 2022 © Pulmuone]Pulmuone practices ESG management based on realizing LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability — activities for the sustainability of oneself and the Earth) values through plant-forward orientation, animal welfare, healthy experience, eco-friendly care, and more. In 2021, Pulmuone made the vegan-food business a new growth engine, declared itself a plant-forward leading company in 2021, and, under the keynote "We make right food for the healthy tomorrow of people and the Earth," launched its first sustainable-food brand, "Gigusikdan." It consists of two sub-brands — "Plant-Based Gigusikdan," which uses only plant-based ingredients, and "Animal-Welfare Gigusikdan," which uses animal-welfare ingredients as the main ingredients — and Plant-Based Gigusikdan unveiled a variety of products divided into the categories of animal-substitute foods made only with plant-based ingredients, plant-based protein-enriched foods, and plant-based convenience foods.To target a broad consumer base — from full vegans who eat a vegan diet, to flexitarians who try partial vegetarianism, to the MZ generation that pursues a meaningful diet — Pulmuone focused on implementing not only nutrition but also taste and texture, and it expanded its meat-substitute lineup centered on menus reflecting Korean food culture and eating habits, so that Koreans can enjoy plant-based meat substitutes in a familiar and delicious way. Gigusikdan is also backed by economic effects, posting cumulative sales of 43 billion won just one year after launch, and as Pulmuone reorganizes along with its strategy of fostering vegan food as a food of the future, it is also seeing an effect of improving profitability across the group.Along with plant-forward, Pulmuone selected "Eco-Caring" as one of its four core strategies, firming up its will and resolve to reduce greenhouse gases. To realize this, it set a plan to reduce company-wide greenhouse-gas emissions by 4% each year through 2025, for a total reduction of more than 12%. It plans to establish and implement greenhouse-gas-reduction measures on various fronts — actively pushing plant-based product development, raising the share of new and renewable energy, managing manufacturing-process energy on a unit basis, and promoting the resource circulation of plant residues.Pulmuone's Sustainable Management 2. Professional ManagementPulmuone is one of the companies that, across Korea's industry as a whole, stepped into ESG management activities early. Since 2017, it has responded to ESG risks by forming an "ESG Committee" and inspecting sustainable management strategy. Currently it operates an ESG Committee system composed of one internal director and four external directors within the board, and Pulmuone attempted a major shift in its management style from 2018 for management transparency. Ending the owner management that had continued for 33 years since its founding in 1984 and introducing a professional-management system, current CEO Lee Hyo-yul, "Pulmuone's employee No. 1," has taken charge of management.The following year, in 2019, it completed the purchase of subsidiary stakes and more, completing its governance structure as it is now, and Pulmuone became the only listed company in the group. Pulmuone now entrusts all business to subsidiaries and operates in an "operating holding company" manner in which the holding company makes all important decisions — a structure in which Pulmuone, as a pure holding company, oversees management, brand, R&D, and more, and the subsidiaries carry out the business. A governance structure in which the holding company holds 100% of the subsidiaries' stakes, as at Pulmuone, is a governance structure commonly seen at global companies; by establishing a holding-company system meeting global standards, it laid the groundwork for advancing its governance.[Pulmuone's Open Shareholders' Meeting held in 2019 © Pulmuone]Since 2008, Pulmuone has held its shareholders' meeting under the name "Open Shareholders' Meeting" for 14 years running. Held once a year, it is a venue for reporting the year's performance to shareholders, and unlike an ordinary company's, Pulmuone's is conducted based on shareholders' participation and communication. This is possible because Pulmuone, seeking to break away from the existing uniform shareholders'-meeting culture, holds an "Open Shareholders' Meeting" in a discussion-forum format, benchmarking Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway shareholders' meeting; through the shareholders' meeting, Pulmuone sought to create a venue for communication in which shareholders become the owners.Pulmuone is also working on employee education for digital innovation, building the digital learning platform "Digital Academy" this past March for its executives and staff. In addition, by establishing "Pulmuone Together," a subsidiary-type standard workplace for people with disabilities that helps them become self-reliant, within the Yangji Logistics Center, it provides opportunities for individuals with disabilities to demonstrate their abilities and helps them achieve economic self-reliance. We hope that the sincere ESG management of Pulmuone — which leads the front of Korea's food industry and has established itself as the No. 1 most respected company in Korea — will continue.by Editor N
In Korea, the "G" (Governance) in ESG is translated and used as jibae gujo, meaning "control structure." But if you translate jibae gujo back into English, it is not "governance." Jibae gujo literally refers to a company's "decision-making and profit-distribution structure" itself. The internationally accepted meaning of governance is closer to the conduct and processes of the people who lead a company. ESG.ONL's "In Search of Governance" series introduces cases of companies at home and abroad with good governance, in the interest of a more accurate understanding and use of the term.Patagonia, Whose Shareholder Changed on Its 50th AnniversaryThe outdoor brand Patagonia is unquestionably a frontrunner in the philosophy of sustainable management. "Don't buy this jacket" was an advertising line that ran in The New York Times in 2011, long before the MZ-generation consumer culture known as "meaning out" caught fire. There is one more line that makes you think Patagonia has an excellent copywriter: "Earth is now our only shareholder," announced in September 2022, the company's 50th anniversary. At that time Patagonia's founder and chairman, Yvon Chouinard, donated all of the Patagonia shares held by himself and his family for the sake of the Earth. This amounted to 100% of Patagonia's stock.[Yvon Chouinard, founder of 'Patagonia' ©Patagonia]Who Speaks for the EarthOf the shares Chouinard donated, the 2% consisting of voting stock was transferred to the "Patagonia Purpose Trust," a newly established trust created to carry on Patagonia's values and public-interest activities, while the 98% consisting of non-voting stock was transferred to the nonprofit "Holdfast Collective." The Holdfast Collective was established to support local environmental organizations, protect biodiversity and nature, and back political candidates and political activities; those activities continue on roughly 100 million dollars (133 billion won) in annual dividends, though the figure will vary with Patagonia's financial performance. Chouinard, who transferred 100% of the company's shares for the Earth through these arrangements, still works at Patagonia. Having given up owning the company, he did not give up working for it.Was Chairman Chouinard's Decision Good Governance?There were largely two reasons Chouinard arrived at this decision: preserving the values the company had pursued, and securing continued employment for Patagonia's employees working all over the world. If you sell a company to someone else, its values are bound to be corrupted, and its staff are likely to be replaced. Taking the company public was another option, but a public company inevitably faces the pressure of generating short-term profits. So Chouinard designed a new approach unique to Patagonia and transferred the entire stake, explaining it as "not going public, but going purpose." He minimized risk so that Patagonia's greatest asset—its management values—could be carried on, and protected the company by making the Earth, which does not press for profit, its shareholder.Patagonia vs. CapitalismConsidering the background of Chouinard's decision, one cannot rule out the possibility that it owes something to Patagonia's headquarters being in the United States. In the U.S., the prevailing view is that ESG investing violates the "fiduciary duty of a trustee to consider only the interests of the client." In other words, within the current American capitalist system, there is a surrounding climate one must be mindful of before doing good freely. Of course, Patagonia is not a listed company subject to disclosure, nor did a financial institution take an equity stake in it. But Chouinard sought to change corporate practice, and through it he appears to be dreaming of a change in the capitalist system as well. One could view his choice as extreme and experimental governance. Yet, with an owner's foresight, Chouinard's choice made it possible for decision-making centered on the company's values and the interests of shareholders to stand on the same line.It goes without saying that good copy comes from good substance. The line "Earth is now our only shareholder" is the very value that Chouinard and Patagonia are putting into practice.by Editor L
A Frontrunner in Climate Tech: Newlight Technologies[Newlight's headquarters in California ©Newlight Technologies]Newlight Technologies is a company headquartered in Huntington Beach, California, co-founded in 2003 by Mark Herrema (CEO) and Kenton Kimmel (CTO). Actively responding to the greenhouse-gas problem and driving change in industry, Newlight Technologies holds unrivaled technology for breaking away from conventional industrial methods and turning greenhouse gases into renewable materials. Its signature technology has natural microorganisms absorb greenhouse gases to produce a solid biomaterial called "AirCarbon." AirCarbon is a substitute for plastic. Lightweight, highly durable, and usable across a wider temperature range than industrial plastics, it can be applied in many industries such as packaging, automotive parts, furniture, and electronics. Produced by eco-friendly methods, AirCarbon is notable for being not merely low-carbon but a biologically carbon-negative material. A carbon-negative material means one whose production process not only generates no carbon but also has the effect of removing carbon."AirCarbon," a Technology Inspired by Nature[PHB made with AirCarbon technology ©Newlight Technologies]The AirCarbon technology is said to have drawn its idea from the "natural cycle mechanism," a natural process in ecosystems that circulates between living and non-living environments. Newlight Technologies discovered an important characteristic of a particular microorganism found in the ocean. This microorganism uses carbon in the atmosphere to make its own bioenergy, and in that process it had the ability to produce bioplastic as a byproduct. Based on this principle, Newlight Technologies cultivated these microorganisms in a controlled environment; when greenhouse gases—the energy source the microorganisms need—were supplied during cultivation, the microorganisms consumed them and, as living organisms, produced both their own growth and the eco-friendly plastic material "polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB)." Because PHB has properties similar to conventional plastic yet biodegrades when returned to nature, it produces a dual effect of contributing to the circular economy while strengthening sustainability.[Biodegradable tableware made through the food brand Restore, 2020 ©Newlight Technologies]A New Light: The Social Impact Newlight Technologies Has CreatedNewlight Technologies has earned high corporate value through remarkable investment, various awards, and strategic partnerships. In 2014 the AirCarbon technology was named an Innovation of the Year by the American science magazine Popular Science, and in 2016 it received the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA). CEO and co-founder Mark Herrema was also named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential climate leaders of 2023. As its reputation grew, Newlight Technologies had attracted about 366.4 million dollars (about 495.4 billion won) in investment by August 2023 and was designated a unicorn—a private company valued at over one billion dollars. This is the result of AirCarbon technology offering the market a way to reduce carbon emissions while enabling sustainable product manufacturing.[A handbag made by the fashion brand 'Covalent' using AirCarbon technology, 2020 ©Newlight Technologies]The Value of Climate Tech That Newlight Technologies PresentsNewlight Technologies presents a new approach to corporate environmental responsibility. Their approach demonstrates a balance between environmental protection and industrial value creation. Facing the climate crisis, they do not merely call for restraint in plastic consumption but hold a concrete and definite corporate alternative. AirCarbon technology presents a way of responding to the climate crisis that goes one step beyond carbon neutrality to carbon reduction. Setting an exemplary case of climate tech, their trajectory offers ESG stakeholders several insights.1. Technological innovation that considers a sustainable future can drive innovation rather than corporate sacrifice.2. Reducing greenhouse gases can be a strategy for gaining competitive advantage, beyond corporate social responsibility.3. Developing renewable materials, beyond merely responding to environmental problems, can be a good catalyst for driving changes in consumer demand and industry trends.[Climate-Tech Brands and ESG] When we talk about the future of the Earth, we cannot pass over "climate change." Until a few years ago we used the term "climate change," but amid concerns that it conveyed too little urgency we now use the term "climate crisis." Since the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, more actionable concepts and goals such as 1.5°C and carbon-footprint management have been emphasized, and diverse stakeholders—governments, companies, non-governmental organizations, and academia in each country—are seeking measures to respond to climate change. Climate tech is playing an important role in this process. Climate tech is a concept encompassing strategic approaches to fostering a sustainable environment through technological innovation and to confronting climate change and its aftermath. Climate-tech companies provide products and services by developing technologies that can help address the climate crisis—renewable energy, improved energy efficiency, carbon capture and storage, eco-friendly building materials, sustainable agriculture, carbon-footprint-reduction solutions, and more. ESG.ONL, today's magazine for tomorrow, seeks to introduce leading climate-tech brands through its "Climate Companion" series.by Editor L
Pursuing shared growth with local communities and partner companiesSocial-contribution activities grounded in employee participation, such as the POSCO 1% Foundation and the POSCO Talent Volunteer CorpsThe bond between POSCO and the city of Pohang began the moment Pohang was confirmed as the site for the new steelworks in June 1967. As POSCO grew into a global steel company, Pohang, the city where POSCO is based, grew along with it. Now, more than half a century after POSCO and Pohang came together, Pohang has become the leading city of the Gyeongbuk region with a population of 500,000 and the mecca of Korea's steel industry. In the course of the city's growth, POSCO offered a variety of support from its earliest days—actively running education projects to cultivate local talent and creating spaces where citizens could enjoy culture and the arts. In Part 2, we examine POSCO's community-based social-contribution activities, focusing on the "Pohang Community Report" and the "Gwangyang Community Report."POSCO's Sustainable Management 1. Shared Growth[POSCO's four supply-chain management strategies and eight shared-growth programs ©2022 POSCO Corporate Citizenship Report]POSCO began activities for shared growth in the late 1990s, when the very term "shared growth" was still unfamiliar. In 2005 it formed a dedicated shared-growth organization and continued support for coexistence with small and medium-sized enterprises. Using its eight shared-growth programs, it helped suppliers solve problems and, beyond mere social-contribution activities, sought to grow together with SMEs and strengthen the supply chain of domestic industry. With the inauguration of POSCO Group Chairman Choi Jeong-woo in 2018, the company signed the "With POSCO Shared-Growth Practice Agreement," which included support for coexistence management with partner companies, closing wage gaps, and expanding shared-growth programs, and it extended shared-growth benefits down to second-tier partner companies. Since 2021 it has operated a Shared-Growth Support Group to assist not only partner companies but also local SMEs, identifying improvement tasks centered on four areas—building smart factories, resolving ESG issues, equipment and energy efficiency, technological innovation—and encouraging local SMEs to strengthen competitiveness on the basis of sales expansion and cost reduction.[Pohang citizens holding a celebration on July 19, 1985, welcoming the approval to establish Pohang University of Science and Technology ©2022 Pohang Community Report]POSCO has, from its earliest days, considered growing together with the local community—not just local companies—to be a corporate social responsibility. Based on its management philosophy of being "a corporate citizen that develops together with others," it divided its focus into three areas—local community, future generations and vulnerable groups, employees—established three strategies accordingly, and sought directions in which more social value could be created by making the most of the company's strengths. A notable undertaking is its education-support project for building a sustainable local community. Beginning with the Jecheol Scholarship Foundation in 1971, its early founding period, it established the Jecheol Academy school foundation in 1976. The total number of graduates produced through POSCO's education foundation is 129,112; as of 2022, it accommodates 5,489 (10%) of Pohang's 55,521 elementary, middle, and high school students, providing a high-quality educational environment. After establishing the middle- and high-school foundation, it founded Pohang University of Science and Technology, "POSTECH," in 1986 and the Research Institute of Industrial Science & Technology (RIST) in 1987, then opened "Technopark," which supports venture start-ups, in 2000 and the start-up support space "Change Up Ground" in 2021, thereby building a world-class industry-academia-research cluster in Pohang. As of 2022, Pohang Change Up Ground housed a total of 98 companies with a combined corporate value of 1.4018 trillion won. Moreover, through the operation of Pohang Change Up Ground, it attracted 60 billion won in investment.POSCO's Sustainable Management 2. Sharing Through VolunteeringThe strength that enables POSCO to carry out active social-contribution activities lies in the voluntary and active participation of POSCO's employees. The funds of the "POSCO 1% Foundation," a nonprofit public-interest foundation established in November 2013, are raised when employees of POSCO Group and its partner companies donate 1% of their salaries. Over the past ten years the number of donors alone has reached 34,818, and donations recorded 10.17 billion won, an increase of about 131% compared with 2013, the first year of establishment. Project expenditures likewise reached 12.55 billion won compared with 2013, providing generous support to future generations, vulnerable groups, people with disabilities, and multicultural families. In 2022 the donation participation rate through the 1% Foundation was 98%, with 275,147 cumulative beneficiaries and 85.5 billion won in cumulative funds raised.[Composition of major talent-volunteer corps by region ©2022 Pohang Community Report]POSCO also operates volunteer organizations. The "POSCO Volunteer Corps," founded in 2003, is likewise run on the basis of voluntary employee participation. In particular, it steadily maintains relationships with the local community through talent-volunteer activities that make use of individual employees' job characteristics and special skills, and it also runs a special volunteer week, the "Global Model Citizen Walk," to build a better local community. Cumulative volunteer hours alone reach 346,855, and the number of volunteer participants is 13,096.[Pohang Clean Ocean Volunteer Corps ©2022 Pohang Community Report]The Pohang "Clean Ocean" volunteer activity, launched in 2009, carries out activities for the marine ecosystem. The marine debris collected by the Clean Ocean Volunteer Corps to date totals 2,060 tons, and over the past 15 years 19,368 people have taken part in preserving the marine ecological environment and in underwater cleanup activities, amounting to 77,472 volunteer hours.Through the highlights of its Corporate Citizenship Report, POSCO makes it easy for the general public to understand its achievements to date, including its corporate-citizenship management philosophy and ESG strategy framework. It also provides files that the POSCO Talent Volunteer Corps recorded as audiobooks through the Good Voice volunteer group, so that POSCO's efforts and achievements can reach diverse stakeholders. As the title of POSCO's 2022 Corporate Citizenship Report suggests, we look forward to the better future that POSCO and its local community will create together.by Editor N
When we talk about the future of the Earth, we cannot pass over "climate change." Until a few years ago we used the term "climate change," but amid concerns that it conveyed too little urgency we now use the term "climate crisis." Since the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, more actionable concepts and goals such as 1.5°C and carbon-footprint management have been emphasized, and diverse stakeholders—governments, companies, non-governmental organizations, and academia in each country—are seeking measures to respond to climate change. Climate tech is playing an important role in this process. Climate tech is a concept encompassing strategic approaches to fostering a sustainable environment through technological innovation and to confronting climate change and its aftermath. Climate-tech companies provide products and services by developing technologies that can help address the climate crisis—renewable energy, improved energy efficiency, carbon capture and storage, eco-friendly building materials, sustainable agriculture, carbon-footprint-reduction solutions, and more. ESG.ONL, today's magazine for tomorrow, seeks to introduce leading climate-tech brands through its "Climate Companion" series.The 1.5°C That Shows Up Whenever Climate Comes UpAs awareness of climate change has risen over the past few years, the number "the 1.5°C threshold" has functioned as more than a mere figure—it has become a goal shared worldwide. This threshold is a core target set at the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, and the effort to limit the rise in the Earth's average temperature to within 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels became a symbol. The reason for setting this temperature ceiling is that once the rise in the Earth's average temperature exceeds 1.5°C, the shock to the Earth's ecosystem and human society becomes far more severe. Put simply, all the activities we have carried out to predict the climate could collapse, and the very concept of climate by season or latitude could change entirely. On May 17, 2023, the UN's World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced that there is a 66% probability the Earth's average temperature will cross the 1.5°C threshold within 2027. It explained that this likelihood is growing even greater because of carbon emissions from human activity and the El Niño (an abnormal high-temperature phenomenon) predicted to occur in 2023. To prevent this, the international community is taking various measures such as reducing carbon emissions and increasing renewable-energy consumption, and as part of these efforts early climate-tech brands showed a tendency to concentrate on the energy and materials sectors. Among these brands, the one we introduce today is an energy-solutions company that has staked its entire vision on its name.The Problem Definition and Solution 1KOMMA5° Discovered1KOMMA5° (hereafter 1Komma5°) is an energy-software platform company headquartered in Hamburg, Germany, founded in 2021 by Jannik Schall, Micha Grueber, Michael Hinderer, Philip Liesenfeld, and Philipp Schröder. With its technology related to solar power plants and heat pumps, 1Komma5° raised 430 million euros (about 617.5 billion won) in a Series B round in June 2023, growing into a unicorn just 23 months after its founding.[1Komma5°, which attained unicorn status in just 23 months ©1KOMMA5°]Under the shared understanding that responding to the climate crisis is urgent, 1Komma5° has made reducing each household's carbon emissions its mission; through smart energy solutions, it helps homes—and more broadly workplaces—cover the electricity they use with renewable energy, so that everyone can realize a carbon-neutral lifestyle while living much as they do now.1Komma5° has now grown into a company of more than 1,900 climate experts, with employees active at 72 locations across Germany as well as Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Italy, Spain, Australia, and more. Each team, drawing on its expertise and experience, carries out a variety of projects—solar panels, energy storage systems, EV charging stations, heat pumps, and more—and provides tailored advice to local communities. Their vision is to build systems in 1.5 million European households by 2030 and, going forward, to create an environment based on the IoT (Internet of Things) in which consumers are protected from and can benefit from the volatility of the electricity market. The reason 1Komma5° is drawing attention is that it approaches carbon emissions arising not from the public sector but from homes and small- and medium-sized buildings. Household energy—heating, cooling, electricity use, and so on—accounts for a large share of total greenhouse-gas emissions. Taking the lack of a proper solution in this sector as the problem, they provide smart energy solutions that play an important role in reducing household emissions.[Heartbeat, the IoT device that helps homeowners manage their energy ©1KOMMA5°]At the center of the services 1Komma5° provides is a proprietary IoT system called "Heartbeat." Through this device they connect a solar system's electricity storage, wallbox, and heat pump, helping homeowners reduce their electricity costs. The core of this idea is to let the system optimize power consumption and thereby help consumers save energy.[1Komma5° showroom ©1KOMMA5°]The Achievements 1KOMMA5°'s Three Years ProducedOn January 17, 2024, 1Komma5° announced its 2023 financial results. Its 2023 revenue more than doubled compared with 2022 to about 460 million euros, and profit also increased significantly, reaching about 50 million euros (about 71.8 billion won). It achieved these results in just over three years since launching its service, despite investing tens of millions of euros in developing its own products and software. Just as Tesla's electric vehicles forced the introduction of chargers into residential and public facilities, this is a remarkable achievement produced by a new perspective—household energy-control solutions—at a time when everyone was focused on factories and large-scale facilities. In addition, 1Komma5° announced a plan to grow 2024 revenue to 700–750 million euros and operating profit to more than 70 million euros.by Editor L
The meaning of a corporation redefined as a member of the social communityEfforts for biodiversity conservation and environmental problem-solving, such as marine forest (seaweed forest) restoration and the Clean Ocean Volunteer CorpsStarting 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 PhilosophyThe 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 GenerationsIn 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