Lotte Chemical President & CEO Kim Kyo-hyun, concurrently head of Lotte Group’s Chemical Business Unit, and Kim Yeon-sup, chief of Lotte Chemical’s ESG Management Division, pose together with others after declaring the ‘Green Promise 2030’ initiative on Feb. 2. (Photo: Lotte Chemical)

Chemical subsidiaries of Lotte Group disclosed plans to implement a “carbon-neutral growth” initiative requiring them to not increase the level of net greenhouse gas emissions past the 2019 baseline.

They also pledged to raise the portion of sales in the eco-friendly sector to 6 trillion won, a 10-fold jump.

Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin stressed a need for considering environment, social and governance (ESG) factors in the course of establishing visions and strategies, while presiding over a subsidiary CEOs’ meeting in January.

The chemical units of the business group have set in motion their own action plan in accordance with Chairman Shin’s order.

Lotte Group’s Chemical Business Unit declared “Green Promise 2030,” containing how to implement eco-friendly projects and implementation tasks.

The declaration may be construed as the business unit’s scheme to expand its eco-friendly business and pursue growth for sustainable projects.

Lotte Chemical, Lotte Fine Chemical, Lotte Aluminum and Lotte BP Chemical participated in the declaration.

The petrochemical industry, in which Lotte Chemical has businesses, has large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions, along with steelmaking, cement and the refinery industry.

The chemical units of Lotte Group decided to pour about 5.2 trillion into four core tasks – strengthening eco-friendly businesses, expanding a virtuous cycle of resources, coping with a climate change crisis and building a green ecosystem.

 
The Chemical Business Unit plans to implement projects each subsidiary has explored through collaboration by forming an in-house eco-friendly consultative body.

The chemical unit aims to raise the portion of its eco-friendly business sales to about 6 trillion won, 10 times more than the current levels.

They plan is to strengthen eco-friendly specialty material business, based on connectivity of the conventional businesses and future growth, while pushing ahead with recycled material business projects connected with a virtuous cycle of resources.

They decided to enter the green energy material businesses, such as photovoltaic power and wind power drawing global attention from countries around the world.

The chemical units plan to expand the use of post-consumer recycled materials to ramp up a virtuous cycle of resources and increase sales of recycled products to 1 million tons.

To this end, they decided to research on the reuse of raw materials through gasification of waste plastic and ways of utilizing waste plastic in a physical and chemical fashion.

They plan to establish their own plan corresponding to global companies’ “RE100” campaign to cope with climate change on a voluntary basis.

RE100 is a global initiative bringing together the world’s most influential businesses committed to 100% renewable electricity.

President & CEO Kim Kyo-hyun, head of Lotte Group’s Chemical Business Unit, said, “The chemical subsidiaries will establish sustainable, eco-friendly strategies by making this year the first year of promoting ESG management and implement core tasks.”

They will translate details into action so that they can proactively communicate with customers, shareholders and society and each company’s improving future values can be connected with the creation of society’s positive values, he added.

President Kim Retained as CEO of Lotte Chemical

President Kim, concurrently CEO of Lotte Chemical, plans to concentrate on laying the groundwork for sustainable growth of the chemical business, the mainstay sector of Lotte Group.

He is tasked with restructuring the business portfolio of the Chemical Business Unit with a focus on basic materials and building future growth foundations by ramping up new businesses such as battery materials and advanced materials.

Lotte Group Chairman Shin’s confidence toward President Kim was reconfirmed in the latest reshuffle of executives, conducted late last year, in which he was retained as president of Lotte Chemical.