Electronics maker pledges further greenhouse gas emission cuts, labor rights promotion


LG Electronics vice chairman and CEO Koo Bon-joon called for the electronics maker to commit to the basics in its sixth sustainability report issued last month, the Seoul-based company said on Monday.

“The most important principle for a company to maintain its sustainability is essentially to secure competence in its field through sincere commitment to the basics,” Koo said in the report.

He noted that the “basics” for manufacturers such as LG Electronics amounted to “quality,” and stressed that quality was the company’s promise to the customer that could not be compromised.

The report LG Electronics issued outlined its achievements and future goals in relation to sustainable growth during the previous year.

LG Electronics, the flagship unit of LG Group, has been working to turn around its business this year.

This year’s report focused on all aspects of the company’s scope of business, with particular emphasis on its efforts to support green growth and advancing labor-management relations to help promote the development of its smaller partners and suppliers.

In the area of green growth, the company said it had made 12.75 million tons of reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in terms of product usage and 160,000 tons in production. 

It had previously pledged to reduce a total of 6.1 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions in 2010.

The company is now aiming to achieve a greenhouse gas emission reduction in production of 150,000 tons by 2020, which would reflect a 10 percent reduction compared to 2008.

The electronics maker also was nominated for the carbon management global leaders’ club, which is an organization of five companies with the best low carbon green management performance of the 200 largest Korean companies.

It also has been promoting green growth among its supplies, urging them to establish a green supply network management system by organizing a green education program.

On the labor relations front, LG Electronics became the first among local firms to announce a “Union Social Responsibility” in January last year in a bid to ensure ethical and transparent union activities.

At all of its branches and offices, the company promised to continue efforts to protect labor rights.

LG Electronics’ mid- to long-term goal is to improve the protection of labor rights at its overseas site to up to 90 percent of Korean sites by 2015, the company said.

LG Electronics said it commissioned Two Tomorrows Ltd. for the 2010 sustainability report.

Senior executives at the company, along with the president of the LG Electronics labor union and independent analysts and experts were interviewed for the report, the company said.

As of December, there were 90,578 employees working at LG Electronics. About a third of the workforce is stationed in Korea.

About 1 percent were temporary workers, while another 1 percent were disabled people.

By Kim Ji-hyun (jemmie@heraldcorp.com)