POSCO Establishes 'Eco-Friendly Consulting Support Team' for Regional Environmental Improvement

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] POSCO has established an 'Eco-friendly Consulting Support Team' to support the improvement of local air quality.

POSCO has decided to jointly address the air quality improvement (odor reduction) in the area near the steel complex in Ocheon-eup, Pohang City, through public-private cooperation with Pohang City. Until now, Pohang City has made efforts to improve the situation on its own, such as supporting investments in waste gas incineration facilities at major odor-emitting sites to resolve odor complaints from the steel complex, but fundamental solutions have been difficult.

Accordingly, POSCO launched the 'Eco-friendly Consulting Support Team' on February 1. POSCO plans to participate in improving the local environment by forming a consultative body with Pohang City targeting 14 odor-generating sites within the steel complex, collaborating not only with POSCO’s environment, facilities, and purchasing departments but also with the Pohang Institute of Industrial Science and Technology (RIST) to identify causes and propose solutions.

POSCO intends to take the lead in solving environmental issues in the Pohang and Gwangyang areas by utilizing the environmental improvement technologies and know-how acquired through operating its steelworks. Based on the management philosophy of 'Corporate Citizenship,' which it has consistently emphasized, the company aims to actively engage in social issues and create shared value with local communities.

First, POSCO will measure odor-causing substances mainly in areas with frequent odor complaints and conduct source tracking and quantitative evaluation of odor impact using atmospheric dispersion models. Through this, it will establish improvement roadmaps for each company and promote comprehensive improvements in the order of environmental diagnosis, deriving improvement plans, implementation, and monitoring across all processes from raw material intake to product shipment.

As the first phase of the support team’s activities, among the 14 major odor-emitting sites, POSCO will prioritize short-term improvements for seven partner and supplier companies related to POSCO by implementing measures such as ▲ substituting low-odor fuels and raw materials ▲ strengthening raw material and product management levels ▲ enhancing sealing and other simple maintenance improvements, and establish an odor management system.

In the second phase, POSCO plans to support environmental improvements of private facilities managed by Pohang City, such as waste treatment, landfill, and incineration. Additionally, POSCO will jointly identify other pollution sources with Pohang City and work toward a comprehensive resolution of Pohang City’s odor problems.

In the future, POSCO plans to actively lead improvement activities by meeting with various stakeholders, including Gwangyang City Hall, local residents, and steel complex tenant companies, to listen to opinions on local environmental issues in the Gwangyang area as well.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.