"Raise People Like Trees" SK Plants Commitment to Net Zero Management (Comprehensive)

ESG Starting Point: Carbon Reduction Roadmap Presented at Chungju Indeungsan
Site Where Former Chairman Choi Jong-hyun Planted Saplings
Green Forest Pavilion Opens
Early Achievement of Carbon Neutrality by 2030
37 Million Tons Reduced Through Solar Power and More
Networking with Domestic and International Companies

The late Choi Jong-hyun, Chairman of SK Group, is planting a tree with his wife Park Gye-hee on Indeungsan Mountain in Chungju, Chungcheongbuk-do in 1977. Photo by SK Supex Council

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Dong-hoon] At the foot of Indeungsan in Chungju, Chungbuk, which was a barren mountain in the 1970s, the late Choi Jong-hyun, former chairman of SK, bowed alongside the late Mrs. Park Gye-hee. Chairman Choi, who painstakingly excavated the rocky mid-slope of Indeungsan and carried soil to plant saplings, repeatedly said, "We must nurture people as we nurture trees, and nurture trees as we nurture people."

Deeply interested in talent development, Chairman Choi started a reforestation project to secure funds for scholarship programs, leading to the establishment of SK Forestry (formerly Seohae Development). This year marks the 50th anniversary of SK Forestry.

In the early days of the reforestation project, company executives suggested "doing business around the metropolitan area," but Chairman Choi refused, saying, "I am not in the land business," and "If metropolitan development expands, the trees we painstakingly nurtured will become useless." The reforested land currently owned by SK Forestry nationwide is about 4,500 hectares (approximately 13.61 million pyeong). The barren mountain from 50 years ago has transformed into a dense forest with 4 million trees, about 40 times the size of Namsan in Seoul.

The profits from the reforestation project were used as scholarships to nurture outstanding talents. In 1974, Chairman Choi donated his private funds to establish the Korea Higher Education Foundation, providing full scholarships covering tuition and living expenses so students could focus solely on their studies. Chairman Choi's efforts to preserve the environment through reforestation and nurture outstanding talents are regarded as the origin of SK's ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) management.

SK Group presented a concrete roadmap for carbon reduction at Indeungsan in Chungju, Chungbuk, the starting point of its ESG management.

SK Group opened the 'Green Forest Pavilion' exhibition hall on Indeungsan Mountain in Chungju, Chungbuk, showcasing its plans and commitment to net-zero management. The exhibition hall is designed around the themes of Indeungsan Mountain and the birch forest. At the center of the hall, a 'Tree of Life' symbolizing sustainable growth has been installed. Photo by SK Supex Council

On the 16th, SK Group opened the 'Green Forest Pavilion,' an exhibition hall digitally showcasing the amount of carbon the company plans to reduce by 2030 and its action plans, at Indeungsan.

At the event, they resolved to achieve net-zero management earlier than the global carbon neutrality target year of 2050 set last year. The plan is to reduce 1% (200 million tons) of the global carbon reduction target of 21 billion tons by 2030, accelerating net-zero management. Net-zero means that the total amount of carbon emitted and removed results in a net emission of zero.

SK aims to reduce 37.3 million tons of carbon by 2030 by building an eco-friendly energy ecosystem using renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power and energy storage systems. Additionally, they plan to reduce 16.5 million tons by establishing AI and semiconductor ecosystems with low-power semiconductors, 7.5 million tons by building an electric vehicle battery ecosystem including next-generation batteries, and 6.7 million tons by creating a plastic recycling ecosystem through urban oil field projects. SK also unveiled the networks and eco-friendly technology ecosystems it needs to build with global companies domestically and internationally to achieve these goals.

To realize this vision, SK Group has set plans to build eco-friendly technology ecosystems across nine sectors to reduce carbon emissions, embedding these plans and commitments in the newly opened 'Green Forest Pavilion.' The exhibition hall is themed around Indeungsan and birch forests. At the center of the pavilion stands the 'Tree of Life,' symbolizing sustainable growth, surrounded by kiosks under the theme '9 Journeys,' which present methodologies for achieving net-zero.

SK Group's ESG management began when the late Chairman Choi established Seohae Development Co., Ltd. (now SK Forestry) in 1972. Later, Chairman Chey Tae-won incorporated SK Forestry, which was under SK Construction (now SK Ecoplant), into the holding company SK Inc. in 2012, securing carbon emission rights and transforming it into a global company conducting reforestation projects overseas.

SK is conducting carbon-neutral forest cooperation projects targeting four domestic reforestation sites (4,500 hectares) including Indeungsan and public and private forests nationwide. This project measures the amount of carbon reduced through reforestation, certifies it as carbon emission rights, and trades these rights to help companies and public entities achieve carbon neutrality while providing income sources to forest owners.

SK expects that the ongoing carbon-neutral forest cooperation projects will absorb 43,000 tons of carbon annually over the next 30 years. Based on this, SK plans to build a platform for trading carbon emission rights, creating a virtuous cycle that simultaneously pursues environmental preservation and value-added creation.

An SK official said, "Chairman Choi Jong-hyun's management philosophy, which focused on nurturing trees and talents with the view that corporate profits belong to society from the start, has become the fertile soil that enriches SK's ESG management today," adding, "We will create more social value on the global stage using forests as our theme."

SK is also securing carbon emission rights overseas. They have obtained carbon credits through the REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) project protecting tropical rainforests in Papua New Guinea and the ARR (Afforestation, Reforestation, and Revegetation) project planting trees in Sri Lanka. Projects to secure carbon credits are also underway in Vietnam and the Philippines.

Additionally, SK is creating a 'K-Forest' story on the global stage by restoring degraded forests and preventing desertification through reforestation projects in Navoi, Uzbekistan; cork oak forest restoration in Tunisia; and rural community development in Quang Tri Province, Vietnam.

An SK official stated, "Chairman Choi Jong-hyun's management philosophy, which focused on nurturing trees and talents with the view that corporate profits belong to society from the start, has become the fertile soil that enriches SK's ESG management today," emphasizing, "We will create more social value on the global stage using forests as our theme."

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