Choi Tae-won: "War and Inflation Make Business Environment Challenging... We Will Move Toward Our Goals with Entrepreneurial Spirit"

First Domestic Holding Company to Launch 'ESG Online Platform' on the 22nd to Strengthen Market Communication

Chairman Chey Tae-won of SK Group. Photo by SK Inc. Sustainability Management Report

"War, global environmental changes, and inflation continue to make the business environment challenging this year as well. However, our members, who have overcome various crises together, will move toward our goals with a new entrepreneurial spirit that finds solutions through creative innovation in harmony with society."

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won stated this in the ‘2022 Sustainability Management Report,’ published on the 19th, which contains the group-level ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) strategy. This report reflects Chairman Chey Tae-won’s determination to increase transparency and gain trust by disclosing invisible ESG achievements based on integrated data.

At the beginning of the report, Chairman Chey said, "Over the past two years, we have passed through the long tunnel of the pandemic and felt the importance of ‘sustainable growth’ more than ever. The serious awareness of climate change issues and the preciousness of life has led us to reconsider the fundamental purpose and direction of corporate activities." Based on these reflections, SK has set a bold goal to reduce 200 million tons of carbon by 2030 and announced a financial story outlining the methodology to achieve this.

According to the report published on this day, SK Inc. created social values of KRW 1.3878 trillion, KRW 78.9 billion, and KRW 66.2 billion in the three areas of ▲economic indirect contribution, ▲environmental performance, and ▲social performance, respectively, last year. This represents an approximately 48% increase compared to the previous year (KRW 1.0391 trillion) in total amount.

The report includes ESG strategies and data of subsidiaries, allowing confirmation of the group-level ESG management status. It introduces the group-level business innovation models to turn carbon neutrality into a sustainable growth opportunity: ▲Battery, ▲Clean Energy, and ▲Plastic Ecosystem. Each innovation model shows the strategies that subsidiaries are implementing individually to achieve net zero (carbon neutrality) and how they collaborate at the group level to create synergy.

In particular, SK Inc. will launch an ESG platform on the 22nd of this month, designed to be visually easy to understand through graphs based on the contents of this sustainability management report. This is the first attempt by a domestic holding company. The SK Inc. ESG platform is expected to enhance communication with the market by gathering key ESG information at the group level in one place for easy access.

Notably, the ESG-related data includes not only SK Inc. but also four major subsidiaries with large sales: SK Innovation, SK Telecom, SK Networks, and SKC. Financial and non-financial performance over the past three years can be viewed at a glance through company- and year-based graphs. Non-financial performance is subdivided into environmental performance (greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy consumption, water usage, waste emissions) and social areas (employment, employment of persons with disabilities, employee training hours) reflecting the social value created by SK. SK Inc. plans to expand this to include ESG data from other subsidiaries in the future to complete the SK Group ESG platform.

The introduction of SK Inc.’s investment business has also been described in more detail. It provides detailed information on net asset value, strategies, performance and goals, and portfolios for the four investment centers: ▲Advanced Materials, ▲Green, ▲Bio, and ▲Digital, making it easy to understand the overall business of SK Inc., which is evolving into an investment specialist company. Additionally, the C&C business division introduced its achievements in diversifying its customer base across industries such as public, finance, and distribution by equipping various digital assets such as AI, big data, and cloud to achieve the vision of being ‘a partner leading digital transformation and innovation.’