Environmental responsibilities for air quality, water resources, and by-products are managed by the Environmental Planning Office under the HSE Division and the Environment and By-Product Group at the Pohang and Gwangyang Steelworks. The performance and issues of major environmental metrics are reported monthly as regular agenda items at the management briefings chaired by the CEO of POSCO.

We proactively address the rapidly changing external environmental conditions, guided by the vision ‘Better World with Green Steel.’ With the goal of achieving ‘environmental improvement that employees and local residents can feel,’ we implement systematic environmental management practices and carry out various improvement activities. Specifically, we mandatorily review and evaluate our environmental impact during the formulation of the company’s mid-to-long-term business strategy and investment decision-making processes to minimize potential environmental risks.

POSCO presents the mid-term management strategy and the following year’s management plan as resolutions to the Board of Directors every December. These reports also cover key environmental issues and investment plans concerning air quality, water quality, chemical substances, and by-product resource utilization.
・ 8th Board Meeting of 2023: Report on the 2024 Environmental Management Plan within the ‘Mid-Term Management Strategy and 2024 Management Plan’

Since 2022, POSCO has been operating an Environmental Advisory Committee to collect expert opinions on the environmental impact around the steelworks and to enhance local environmental conditions and communication with the local community. The committee is composed of the chairperson (Professor Jang Yoon-seok, Distinguished Professor at UNIST), non-executive members (President of the Korean Society of Environmental Health, environmental expert professors, etc.), and executive members (Head of HSE Division, Head of Environmental Planning Office, Deputy Head of HSE Sector at the steelworks, Head of Environment Research Laboratory at RIST). In 2024, the committee focused on ‘management of environmental hazard exposure and strengthening response capabilities for health damage.

POSCO’s CEO evaluates executives using a combination of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and overall major job performance, which then determines their performance bonuses. In 2023, 30% of the KPIs for the executive director, who was the head of HSE (then the head of Safety, Health, and Environment Division), was based on total air emissions, reflecting environmental performance.

In February 2021, POSCO launched the Environmental Consulting Support Team, comprising the Environment, Equipment, and Purchasing departments, along with RIST. This team undertakes comprehensive odor improvement activities, ranging from cause analysis to solution proposals for odor-emitting worksites within the Pohang steel industrial complex. The support team utilizes POSCO’s equipment operation know-how and environmental improvement technologies to resolve issues in collaboration with Pohang City. Since 2021, the team has identified the causes of odor emissions at various worksites (fertilizer companies, steel secondary raw material companies) and conducted performance diagnoses of prevention facilities (such as scrubbers) that collect and remove odor substances, leading to the formulation of improvement measures. Particularly for fundamental odor improvement, the team has collaborated with RIST to develop technologies that replace odor-generating raw materials in steel secondary raw material manufacturing with odor-free POSCO by-products and substitute odor-causing binders in fertilizer manufacturing with odorless binders. Customized eco-friendly consulting reports were issued to detail the odor diagnosis results and improvement measures for each worksite and were provided to the respective companies. Each worksite is continuously improving prevention facilities, such as installing new scrubbers, and conducting low-odor raw material replacement tests.

Thanks to the activities of the Environmental Consulting Support Team, support from Pohang City, and the efforts of the worksites in managing odors, complaints in the Ocheon area near the Pohang steel industrial complex decreased by 43% in 2022 compared to 2020, the year before the improvements. For the improvement measures identified by the support team that require investment in facilities, Pohang City is linking them to the SME Small-Scale Prevention Facility Support Project, applying them to each worksite.

To strengthen the environmental management capabilities of the steelworks, POSCO offers a variety of educational programs for employees. Training on ISO 14001 requirements and internal audit techniques is provided for responsible personnel. On-site managers and environmental officers receive specialized training from expert consultants on the application and implementation of integrated environmental permits, including permit changes, post-management, and key issues. Furthermore, to enhance overall employee awareness of environmental management practices, an e-learning program titled ‘Easy-to-Understand POSCO Environmental Management’ is available.

We have established an Integrated Environmental Management System and appointed Integrated Environmental Managers for the air quality, water quality, and waste sectors. These managers specialize in addressing various environmental issues within the steelworks, ensuring strict adherence to all relevant regulations. They are responsible for monitoring environmental concerns such as air pollution, water pollution, and waste management, and for devising effective management strategies. Additionally, to stay ahead of evolving environmental regulations, policy trends, and new or revised laws, we provide targeted training for our Integrated Environmental Managers.

We are continuously making environmental investments to enhance air pollutant reduction and expand by-product recycling. Over the past six years (2018–2023), we have allocated approximately 1.92 trillion KRW for Tele-Monitoring Systems (TMS), steelmaking dust collectors, and nitrogen oxide reduction facilities. Looking ahead, we plan to invest around 1.2 trillion KRW in environmental facilities over the next three years (2024–2026).

We will particularly focus on obtaining and implementing the necessary permits and approvals for our facilities in line with the “Act on the Integrated Control of Environmental Pollution Facilities.” By continuing our environmental investments, we aim to comply with increasingly stringent environmental regulations and improve the environmental management standards both inside and outside the steelworks.

We identify both risks and opportunities from domestic and international environmental regulations and issues, assessing their impacts on corporate management to integrate them into our mid- to long-term business strategy and investment decision-making. Through continuous monitoring of environmental regulations and policies, we analyze potential business risks and actively participate in policy development to ensure sensible policy advancement. In new project initiatives, we perform environmental impact assessments to identify and mitigate environmental impact. To prevent environmental accidents and violations at our steelworks, the environmental department conducts regular diagnostics and reports the results to the CEO. Additionally, Pohang and Gwangyang Steelworks carry out daily environmental inspections to maintain rigorous environmental oversight.

We have established an environmental management system based on the ISO 14001 certification, the international standard for environmental management, and applied it to our worksite environmental management policies. Each year, the environmental department supervises internal audits conducted by individual departments, and we undergo post-management and re-certification audits by external professional certification agencies. The results of these audits are reported to the top management, and we adjust our environmental strategies and objectives accordingly to maintain an efficient environmental management system.

We have improved our environmental management system, POEMS (POSCO Environment Management System), by establishing the new ‘POEMS 3.0’. POEMS 3.0 includes media-specific management functions for air, water quality, by-products, and soil, as well as features for retrieving information on environmental permits and issues. This allows for more systematic management of company-wide environmental data. Moreover, to ensure meticulous environmental management at our steelworks, we have implemented a mobile environmental monitoring system for on-site inspections.

We operate a 24-hour Environmental Monitoring Center to strengthen real-time environmental monitoring and have established a response system to promptly address any issues at at-risk sites. Key environmental information, such as air quality concentration around our steelworks, is transparently disclosed via regional environmental information display boards. Furthermore, we participate as members of local consultative bodies with local communities, NGOs, and environmental expert organizations, such as the Pohang Sustainable Development Council and the Gwangyang Sustainable Environment Council. This ensures transparent and detailed communication of our environmental management and improvement activities to external stakeholders. Air and water pollutants from the steelworks’ production processes are automatically measured and transmitted in real-time to government agencies through the Tele-Monitoring System (TMS).
* As of 2023, TMS installations totaled: 246 for air (2024: 301, an additional 55) and 6 for water

In 2021 we successfully conducted a pilot project in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment to transmit TMS data using wireless communication (LTE), leading to its legislation through the revision of the Air Pollution Process Test Standards. The implementation of the TMS wireless network eliminates the need for extensive cable construction, thereby reducing the risk of safety incidents and installation costs while simplifying maintenance. This initiative has been acclaimed as an excellent example of regulatory innovation achieved through public-private partnership.

To drive continuous environmental improvement, we track performance against KPIs and set targets, integrating these into the KPIs for our environmental department and executives. In 2023, the total emissions of air pollutants (sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, dust) from our steelworks’ chimneys amounted to 51.7 thousand tons, representing a reduction of approximately 16% from the previous year. The unit emissions for air pollutants in 2023 were 1.49kg/t-S, a 50% improvement from 2.96kg/t-S in 2000.
*Emission calculations are based on the standards set by the “Special Act on the Improvement of Air Quality in Air Control Zones.”

In 2023, the generation of by-products was 19.524 million tons, with 19.243 million tons being recycled, achieving a recycling rate of 98.6%. Our long-term objective is to consistently maintain a by-product recycling rate of over 98% through 2030.