LG Energy to power all its global operations with renewable energy by 2025

LG Energy Solution Ltd., South Korea’s top battery maker, plans to power all its global production sites with only renewable energy by 2025 to pursue sustainable growth.

In its 2021 environmental, social and governance (ESG) report published on Wednesday, the company said it will complete its conversion to “RE100” across its battery manufacturing plants in Korea, China, North America and Europe by that year.

Citing data from international environmental organizations, including The Climate Group, LG said its use of renewable energy at its plants reached 33% in 2020, the highest conversion rate among 14 Korean companies committed to the RE100 initiative.

LG plans to raise the rate to over 60% by the end of this year.

The RE100, or Renewable Electricity 100 initiative, was first launched by British non-profit organization The Climate Group in 2014, and currently has more than 360 member companies around the globe, including Google, Apple, Ikea and General Motors.

The campaign, which targets companies that use more than 100 GWh per year, prompts them to transition to using 100% renewable energy by 2025 at the earliest.

Korea’s big conglomerates, including LG, SK and Hanwha, have also declared their carbon-free vows to comply with the government’s initiative to introduce ESG standards and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

Analysts say that joining the RE100 initiative will help improve a company’s export competitiveness, given the tightening of global eco-friendly regulations.

CARBON NEUTRALITY ACROSS THE ENTIRE VALUE CHAIN BY 2050

LG said it will also turn its non-manufacturing business operations such as R&D centers into renewable energy-powered sites by 2030.

By 2050, the company aims to achieve carbon neutrality across its entire value chain from resource mining to battery manufacturing, with its suppliers also achieving the RE100 status at their own business sites.

“After that, we will actively pursue our goal of becoming ‘carbon negative,’ which involves converting carbon emissions to minus values,” LG Energy said in a statement.

Also, the company said it will send zero waste to landfills across its business sites by 2023.

To achieve this goal, it said it is developing related technologies to properly dispose of its industrial wastes.

Its parent, LG Chem Ltd., said in July of last year that it became the first Korean company in the chemical sector to announce a carbon neutrality plan aimed at producing zero carbon by 2050.

The chemical company said in August of last year it achieved the RE100 status for its entire battery value chain in China by powering its Chinese plants with 100% renewable energy purchased from Chinese power generators.

Write to Han-Shin Park at phs@hankyung.com
In-Soo Nam edited this article.