Leading Sustainability with ESG Management

Brand
People & Culture

It is time to create measures to protect the earth and systems for social coexistence as people grapple with global issues including pandemics and climate crisis. With more effort placed on sustainability being urged around the world, ‘ESG management’, which ensures sustainability through non-financial factors (Environmental, Social and Governance), has become essential for all companies.

Through this, companies can sustain their business activities across all categories directly or indirectly related to the industries they deal with, while taking into account their social and environmental impact. A company's value, vision, and capabilities are revealed in all of these processes. Hankook Tire, which leads not only the automobile market but also the future mobility environment, leads the way with ESG management taking on greater responsibility for the global issues we can affect.

Hankook Tire’s Core Management Value ‘ESG Management’
is recognized worldwide.

1. Maintained ‘DJSI World Class’ distinction for seven consecutive years

Each year, countless companies around the world use various global assessments to identify the impact of their activities on the market while establishing and rethinking their roadmaps for the future. Hankook Tire has been recognized for its brand technology in various areas including global motor sports, magazine tests, and international certification systems.

The DJSI is the world's most prestigious evaluation index that comprehensively evaluates not only the economic performance of companies, but also their social and environmental performance every year, targeting the top 2,500 companies by market capitalization around the world. Being incorporated into the DJSI is tantamount to proving a company's business sustainability capabilities in the global market both in its name and action. Hankook Tire has maintained the 'DJSI World Class' distinction, which is only given to the top 10% of companies subject to evaluation, and has done so for seven consecutive years. In addition, Hankook Tire has received excellent reviews in various areas such as social contribution, human rights, supply chain management, and R&D innovation, recording the highest score since being incorporated into the DJSI in 2022.

1. Maintained ‘DJSI World Class’ distinction for seven consecutive years

Each year, countless companies around the world use various global assessments to identify the impact of their activities on the market while establishing and rethinking their roadmaps for the future. Hankook Tire has been recognized for its brand technology in various areas including global motor sports, magazine tests, and international certification systems.

The DJSI is the world's most prestigious evaluation index that comprehensively evaluates not only the economic performance of companies, but also their social and environmental performance every year, targeting the top 2,500 companies by market capitalization around the world. Being incorporated into the DJSI is tantamount to proving a company's business sustainability capabilities in the global market both in its name and action. Hankook Tire has maintained the 'DJSI World Class' distinction, which is only given to the top 10% of companies subject to evaluation, and has done so for seven consecutive years. In addition, Hankook Tire has received excellent reviews in various areas such as social contribution, human rights, supply chain management, and R&D innovation, recording the highest score since being incorporated into the DJSI in 2022.

2. ‘ESG Report LACP Gold Award’

In addition, Hankook Tire announced its ESG vision and presented its ESG strategic direction by publishing the 13th ESG Report in 2022. This report won the Report Type: Online Report Gold Award as an ESG Report at the Spotlight Awards of LACP, the world-renowned marketing research institute.

What Hankook Tire activities led to these results? Introducing Hankook Tire's ESG management activities across its corporate operations.

2. ‘ESG Report LACP Gold Award’

In addition, Hankook Tire announced its ESG vision and presented its ESG strategic direction by publishing the 13th ESG Report in 2022. This report won the Report Type: Online Report Gold Award as an ESG Report at the Spotlight Awards of LACP, the world-renowned marketing research institute.

What Hankook Tire activities led to these results? Introducing Hankook Tire's ESG management activities across its corporate operations.

The 2050 Carbon Neutral Roadmap to Overcome Climate Crisis
Eco Value Chain

In line with the global carbon-neutral focus, Hankook Tire identified climate crisis as a major management issue and prepared a carbon-neutral roadmap to reduce the environmental impact throughout our product development process. All members of Hankook Tire were able to embody our company’s values and vision and participate in energy saving activities by sharing this roadmap throughout the company. In this way, Hankook Tire is continuing its various activities such as using sustainable raw materials, converting renewable energy, improving energy efficiency, and developing new technologies throughout the tire manufacturing process with this goal in mind.

A goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050
Manufacturing system management for production that reduces greenhouse gas emissions to minimize the environmental impact

The first concern was how to improve the energy efficiency of the tire manufacturing process. As a result, Hankook Tire introduced a time difference production system, reduced the operation of unnecessary equipment, improved the operational efficiency of existing facilities with energy efficiency by introducing high-efficiency machines As a result of steadily improving efficiency, our company saw a saved annual energy cost of about KRW 3 billion with greenhouse gas emission reduced by 12,165 tCO₂-eq. Furthermore, efforts to expand the use of low-carbon energy will continue.

Additionally, the Korean plant operates a wet scrubber that purifies odors and gaseous pollutants, and 100% recycled water is used to operate the facility. In addition, efforts are being conducted to minimize the environmental impact of the tire manufacturing process, such as reducing NOx emissions to -42% compared to the emission standard through high-efficiency denitrification facilities.

From the development of natural materials to the design and utilization of waste tires
A series of processes for developing eco-friendly products

Hankook Tire aims to achieve 100% sustainable raw material use by 2050 and 80% eco-friendly product production by 2030 (In 2021, 52.9% of product sales were eco-friendly products.). On top of that, Hankook Tire has been carrying out R&D efforts to minimize resource consumption from the stage of discovering eco-friendly raw materials.

1. Securing eco-friendly material development technology

First, Hankook Tire developed natural oil and biopolymer technology. With this technology, our company reduced its fossil fuel consumption by replacing the conventional petrochemical oil with natural oil (soybean oil), and reduced our carbon dioxide emissions by replacing petrochemical products (synthetic rubber) with biochemical products (biopolymer). In addition, mineral-extracted silica is a material required for tire manufacturing which is discarded after being used once. Hankook Tire will contribute to resource saving and reduce about 4 kg of carbon dioxide emissions per 1 kg of silica at the same time by replacing this material with silica made from vegetable waste.

Certified with ‘’ISCC PLUS’

In 2021, Hankook Tire was recognized with the above eco-friendly material development technology, and was the first to be certified with the ‘ISCC PLUS*’ in the tire industry. The ISCC is an international certification system that verifies the use of eco-friendly raw materials throughout the product production process.

2. Activities for Sustainability of Natural Rubber

In any industry, it is very important to establish a stable supply chain for the essential raw materials that are needed for production. Likewise, the sustainability in the growing and supplying of natural rubber is an important factor in the tire industry, where about 85% of natural rubber is currently grown on small scale farms. Therefore, it is necessary to build a more detailed and systematic supply chain. The global platform ‘Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber (GPSNR)’ takes on this role.

As a founding member of ‘GPSNR,’ Hankook Tire is carrying out activities for the economic, social, and environmental sustainability of the natural rubber supply chain by supporting natural rubber farmers to improve the quality of natural rubber and the safety of the producers. In addition, the company participated in ‘Project TREE,’ which manages the natural rubber supply chain based on a blockchain.

3. Eco-design that analyzes potential environmental impacts from the tire manufacturing stage and reduces negative impact

Since 2012, Hankook Tire has been predicting potential environmental impacts (i.e., climate change, eutrophication, resource depletion) from the tire raw material acquisition stage to the disposal stage, and applying various measures to mitigate environmental impacts when developing a new product.

4. High technology to increase the tire lifespan

Not only imparting eco-friendliness to a product, but also improving the lifespan of a product helps to a great extent in environmental protection. Hankook Tire has developed a technology that can improve tire lifespan by comprehensively analyzing data such as air pressure, rapid acceleration/deceleration, and idling, with sensors attached to tires to reduce fuel consumption. After installing the sensor-attached tire on a bus, our company conducted an experiment for about a year, and its demonstration was successful. In addition, our company developed a technology that improves fuel efficiency by reducing the rolling resistance of tires while the car is running, and optimizes tire weight to minimize resource usage at the same time.

5. Utilization of waste tires

100% of tires that have reached the end of their lifespan can be recycled. Currently, 60% of the total are used to create energy for industrial production activities after being incinerated to generate heat, and the remaining 40% are reused or recycled for their material. In order to increase the recycling rate, Hankook Tire is discovering waste tire utilization companies and developing utilization technologies together with tire industry associations in each country. Furthermore, Hankook Tire is helping to improve environmental awareness by conducting a project to produce upcycled shoes from old tires on a regular basis in collaboration with the shoe brands ‘Tread&Groove’ and ‘YASE’.

2021 Hankook Tire X Yase, <"ZERO" - LEAVE NOTHING BEHIND> / 2022 Hankook Tire X Tread & Groove, < ‘Project Transformation’>

Strengthen long-term ESG competitiveness via shared growth with suppliers

The larger the size and influence of a company, the more important the company's growth becomes for its suppliers. Hankook Tire shares its carbon-neutral roadmap with its suppliers and supports them to establish a carbon management foundation and participate in our greenhouse gas reduction activities. As one of our measures in this vein, Hankook Tire requires an ESG self-diagnosis in the current purchase contract to identify the supplier management status and evaluate supply chain management risk. As of 2022, the number of suppliers that received the ESG evaluation reached 100%. Through this process, ESG guides and training are provided to our suppliers that need improvement in their supply chain management.

In addition, Hankook Tire has been continuously striving to expand the ratio of transactions with raw material suppliers that have obtained a Grade A rating in their ESG evaluation for long-term carbon neutrality. As a result, Hankook Tire is achieving a transaction rate of 92.2% in green purchases as of 2022.

In addition, we are constantly striving for social growth and development. While carrying out social contribution activities such as painting murals, volunteering to provide voice over and voice acting, and creating forests, Hankook Tire internally implements various systems to respect human rights and diversity. Our company conducts a 'Human Rights Impact Assessment' for all 54 global workplaces, establishes 'Korea Circle Partners' as a standard workplace for the disabled to promote employment of the disabled, and secures more female talents by producing female mechanics through systematic education and training. In addition, we operate the “Life Cycle Support System,” a family care system, and help with parental leave, family health checkups, and financial support. Thanks to these efforts, our company was awarded with a ‘Family-Friendly Company’ certification from the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and received the Prime Minister’s Award for Merit for Employment Promotion’ for the disabled. As such, Hankook Tire will continue to advance its human rights management system.

Furthermore, the company established a governance structure centered on the board of directors to improve its transparency and professionalism of corporate management. In particular, by strengthening sustainable development, Hankook Tire operates the ‘ESG Committee,’ to constantly consult and consider the environment, society, and governance-related directions. In addition, Hankook Tire further strengthened our willingness to practice transparent and sound ESG management by declaring the ‘Corporate Governance Charter’ in 2022. In this way, Hankook Tire is recognized for our value by carrying out detailed and systematic ESG activities from the places close to us here and around the world.

Leading Sustainability with ESG Management

1. Maintained ‘DJSI World Class’ distinction for seven consecutive years

1. Maintained ‘DJSI World Class’ distinction for seven consecutive years

2. ‘ESG Report LACP Gold Award’

2. ‘ESG Report LACP Gold Award’

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