Our Response to Climate Change
Declaration of Carbon Neutrality by 2045
Kia aims to provide inspiring movement while reducing negative impacts on nature caused by movement. In November 2021, Kia officially declared to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045. To this end, Kia plans to reduce its carbon emissions by 97% compared to 2019 by 2045 and seek ways to offset the remaining amount, making net emissions "zero" at all stages. This will be promoted with the goal of achieving the 3Ss: Sustainable Energy, Sustainable Mobility, and Sustainable Planet.
Key Milestones for Carbon Neutrality
Direction
- Sustainable Energy
- Sustainable Mobility
- Sustainable Planet
Reduction of Environmental Impact across the Entire Value Chain
Accordingly, Kia diminishes pollution by conducting a thorough evaluation of the entire value chain of upcoming products. As a result, pollutants in the value chain are classified, and the evaluation results are used to improve the eco-friendliness of our manufacturing process.
Environmental impact analysis over life cycle of a vehicle
LCA (Life Cycle Assessment)
Kia has completed the LCA for the EV6 in 2021, and will conduct LCA on Niro hybrid/EV and Sportage in 2022 and will continue to expand LCAs to all new models starting in 2023 from EV9 to improve environmental impact throughout the vehicle's life cycle.
Kia Green Service Center
Kia has established an ESG strategy at the company wide level to reduce carbon emissions in the value chain and is working on a detailed roadmap.
Accordingly, the KIA Green Service Center is aim to establish global guidelines that customers can experience eco-friendly elements in the ownership area.
The goal is to create a guide manual for Kia Green Service Center – Kia Green CX Store, which was initially focused on the service area but gradually expanded to the sales area and even the entire customer contact point.
We selected eight key areas,
- Sustainable Design & Build : Introduction of eco-friendly architectural elements such as wall Green Wall
- Energy : Increased power procurement through renewable energy such as solar power
- Water : Minimizing the occurrence of harmful substances through eco-friendly car wash services such as bubble car wash
- Waste : Elaborating the waste management through establishing waste discharge monitoring)
- Air : Introduction of air quality management system such as minimizing idling
- Carbon Emission : Reduce carbon emission through replacing business vehicle/install charging ifra and etc
- Sustainable Processing : implementation of eco-friendly business processes such as paperless systems
- Sustainable Engagement : Operation of events with customers participation and are working with ESG specialists to develop a total of 44 action items and produce detailed guidelines for field application.
Through this, we are pursuing not only to reduce carbon emissions, but also strengthening the promotion of ESG activities across company to customer. In order to verify the effectiveness of field application, we operated POC in Gangseo flagship store, and made promotional videos which include customer responses .In addition to the guidelines, we plan to distribute education/promotional videos to improve understanding in the field to encourage all participants in our network, including overseas dealers, to actively participate in ESG activities in the ownership area.
Kia’s Climate-related financial Disclosures
The Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) has presented recommendations that include key disclosure elements in order to communicate climate change information based on a globally unified standard. The Recommendation calls on companies to disclose information transparently in four areas: governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets associated with climate change. Kia declared its support for the TCFD in December 2020 and disclosed its first climate change-related financial information in the 2021 ESG Special Report. Based on this, Kia will promise to continually disclose related information with full transparency in the future.
TCFD (Task Force Climate-related Financial Disclosures) (PDF)TCFD recommendations
Governance
Disclose the organization’s governance around climate-related risks and opportunities.
Strategy
Disclose the actual and potential impacts of climate-related risks and opportunities on the organization’s businesses, strategy, and financial planning where such information is material.
Risk Management
Disclose how the organization identifies, assesses, and manages climate-related risks
Metrics and Targets
Disclose the metrics and targets used to assess and manage relevant climate-related risks and opportunities where such information is material.
TCFD timeline
December, 2015
Launch of the TCFD
June, 2017
Announcement of the TCFD
recommendations
December, 2020
Kia declaring support for the TCFD
March, 2021
Kia’s first disclosure in response to the TCFD
recommendations
November, 2021
2045 Carbon Neutrality
declaration
April, 2022
RE100
membership
Business stakeholder management according to climate change perspective
When financial contributions are made on associations, Kia manages nature of the organization, details/purpose of expenditure, and activities that meet the purpose of the expenditure with the Finance and accounting division for association expenses that the company spends.
These expenditures are thoroughly reviewed and managed through the department that executes the contribution > general management department > management level > board of directors.
In particular, we monitor the status of ESG agendas of associations, including activities related to climate change and Kia expects those institutions to act in accordance with the Paris Agreement and other global ESG-related standards and frameworks. If the organization's activities do not conform to the Paris Agreement, it can be monitored and the association can be asked to conduct corrective actions accordingly.
EV6, the first Korean car in history to achieve product carbon footprint certification
Leap forward as a provider for eco-friendly mobility solutions through product eco-friendly management
Kia became the first Korean automaker to achieve the “Product Carbon Footprint” certification after trying to reduce carbon emissions in all value chain. This is an important validation of a broad range of measures we are now taking to reduce the carbon footprint of a vehicle throughout its lifecycle.
Kia is making every effort to pursue eco-friendliness in the entire manufacturing process. It measures and reduces the environmental impact (carbon emissions) of EV6, from raw materials to procurement, parts delivery, vehicle assembly, distribution, usage, and scrapping cars. A range of eco-friendly materials have been introduced to EV6 including PET recycled plastics, floor mats and seat coverings meaning one model contains the equivalent of 107 500ml PET bottles. As we introduce more electrified models to our lineup over the coming years, we will step up our sustainability efforts and ensure we are achieving high levels of transparency when it comes to environmental impact.
The “Product Carbon Footprint” certification is aimed at transforming the country into a sustainable, low-carbon economy. It is a certification system awarded by The Carbon Trust, which comprehensively measures the environmental impact of carbon emissions throughout the process from manufacturing to disposal of products and then awards them when they meet the criteria.
Commitment for Sustainability, RE100 Declaration
KIA aims to transition to 100% Renewable Energy by 2040
Kia has clearly expressed its willingness to achieve global carbon neutrality and is actively participating in responding to climate change by announcing its joining of RE100 (100% renewable energy) with four Hyundai Motor Group affiliates in July 2021.
In particular, Kia aims to preemptively convert the use of electrical energy in domestic and overseas operations to 100% renewable energy by 2040. Kia has already established a system to replace all electricity used by its Slovak plants with renewable energy in 2019, including Autoland Gwangmyeong and Hwaseong, Gwangju is taking the lead in sustainable management by obtaining the “Energy Management System (ISO50001)” certification, which is certified by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
In addition to establishing a RE100 response cooperative system in global workplaces, along with Hyundai Motor Group, we plan to expand renewable energy consumption by reviewing various measures such as “self-generation” that produces renewable energy power by installing solar panels at major workplaces; “Power Purchase Agreement (PPA)” that purchases power directly from renewable energy suppliers; and “Green Premium” that purchases certified renewable energy at a ‘green premium’ price higher than the standard electricity tariff through KEPCO.
Acknowledged as the Best Company in Water Resource category for the second consecutive years, also won Sector Honors Award in Climate change category for three consecutive years at the 2021 CDP Korea Awards
Eco-friendly vehicles
Declaration of 2045 Carbon Neutrality and 2040 RE100
100% renewable energy
Slovakia plan, 100% reliant on electricity produced via renewable energy sources
Green Investment
Environment-friendly investment of 12.1 billion KRW in 2021 (improvement of eco-friendly facilities, introduction of high-efficiency facilities, etc.)
Selling eco-friendly vehicles
31.5 million Sales of eco-friendly cars in 2021