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.

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.

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.

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.

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

CDP Climate Change 2022 Excerpt(PDF)