The limits of changing a carbon-heavy image: an interview with Kim Young-seop

For a company whose core business inherently produces carbon emissions, there's a structural limit to how green its image can ever look despite leading many sustainability initiatives. In this interview, Kim Young-seop at SK Innovation's PR Marketing discussed the company's recent investment in LNG, batteries, and renewables, and broader social efforts to support environmental startups.

Since SK Innovation is, after all, an oil refining and petrochemical company, could you explain what identity the public relations team emphasizes, and to what extent environmental sustainability and ESG are becoming important within the company?

It’s pretty much in line with how the company is perceived externally. Since we are, after all, an energy company, we operate in business areas where carbon emissions are unavoidable. Consequently, precisely because we run businesses that generate carbon emissions, we believe we are working harder than other companies on carbon reduction and ESG initiatives and are focusing our efforts on those areas.

So, to give some examples: while our core business—the refining and chemicals sector—remains our main focus, in terms of carbon reduction and ESG, we’re expanding into the LNG business, and more broadly into batteries and power generation. When it comes to eco-friendly initiatives, we’re working to expand into wind, solar, hydrogen, and even SMRs in the future. I believe these areas represent our efforts toward carbon reduction and ESG activities within the company’s business scope.

Looking at the bigger picture, does the company have any long-term goals related to environmental sustainability and net-zero?

Of course, the company has established strategies, and the one publicly known is our “Sustainable Management Promotion Framework,” or “GROWTH Framework.” In other words, as a total energy solutions company, SK Innovation has established its own sustainable management framework to secure corporate competitiveness across the entire ESG spectrum. I’ll share the specific details of the “GROWTH” strategy in a separate post later. The company established the “GROWTH” strategy in 2022 and has been focusing its efforts on embedding sustainable management through this framework; over the past four years, we’ve accumulated significant achievements and expertise in this area.

Building on that foundation, let me briefly mention some recent achievements: In 2024, we received the highest rating—an “A+”—in the comprehensive evaluation conducted by the Korea ESG Standards Board (KCGS), a leading domestic ESG rating agency. In 2024, we received the highest rating, “A+,” in the comprehensive evaluation conducted by KCGS. Additionally, in 2025, we achieved the highest rating, “Triple A,” in the MSCI ESG assessment. Judging by these achievements alone, it appears that our success in establishing and executing these ESG strategies is now being recognized externally—not only among leading energy companies but among Korean companies as a whole.

In terms of achieving those goals and ratings, are there any major examples from recent projects or initiatives that you consider to be significant, eco-friendly changes?

First, from a business perspective—as I explained earlier—our fundamental achievement is the broad-scale shift in our business focus. We’re proactively responding to the era of the energy transition by moving away from traditional energy sectors—such as petrochemicals, refining, and oil—toward LNG, power, and batteries. As for more lighthearted initiatives that might be recognizable to the public, as a corporation, we’re actively engaged in many social contribution activities. Among these is the SK Group’s flagship “Pro Bono” program.

The Pro Bono program involves our employees leveraging their professional expertise to provide free management consulting to social enterprises and startups—it’s essentially a talent donation program. One recent example that has garnered some interesting public attention is a social venture called Aetrin. It’s a company that manufactures eco-friendly umbrellas. We provided pro bono support to help them complete a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)—a comprehensive evaluation of a product’s entire lifecycle. It’s not easy for startups to complete this kind of assessment on their own. We provided support through our pro bono program—covering costs and other aspects—which enabled startups to undergo the LCA assessment. Based on these results, startups have recently been able to expand their reach into global markets and increase their operational capacity. It’s an example of how we’ve moved beyond our core business operations to engage in ESG activities through these initiatives.

As you mentioned, since we’re an energy company, there seems to be this general perception that we’re in an industry that emits a lot of carbon. As someone on the PR team, what do you think is the biggest challenge SK faces in putting eco-friendly practices into action?

Actually, since I’m also part of the PR team, it might be difficult for me to fully understand the practical challenges from a day-to-day operational perspective. However, if I were to speak about the challenges from an external perspective or in terms of our public relations efforts, it’s undoubtedly the corporate image I mentioned earlier—specifically, the perception that we’re a company engaged in high-carbon businesses. It’s not easy to fundamentally shake off that image. Even if we significantly reduce carbon emissions and actively engage in ESG and other external initiatives, there’s a prevailing view that we can’t drastically and dramatically cut the fundamental amount of carbon we emit. 

On the other hand, from our company’s perspective, we feel a great sense of responsibility regarding this. As I mentioned earlier, precisely because we feel this strong sense of responsibility, we’ve actually been quick to adopt ESG initiatives and internal carbon reduction measures. In that regard, I’d say we’re doing more internally than many other companies. As for other challenges, if we get into the details, it ultimately comes down to our core business—the company’s fundamental purpose, so to speak. In other words, the challenge lies in balancing our core role as a company—which is to generate profits—with carbon reduction and other environmental initiatives. However, as I mentioned earlier, by diversifying our business portfolio in line with this era of energy transition, I believe we will ultimately be able to achieve our carbon reduction goals in the future.

When it comes to ESG and eco-friendly initiatives, concerns about greenwashing are growing. Does SK Innovation have a specific communication strategy in place to avoid criticism related to greenwashing?

While greenwashing concerns seem to have subsided somewhat recently, if I think back, there were a lot of issues about two years ago, and we faced many challenges as well. Naturally, companies that emit carbon and are working to reduce it tend to face more challenges regarding greenwashing. As a result, as I mentioned earlier, we believe we’re making more effort than other companies to address these issues—specifically through our operational teams.

Our compliance team and our public relations team—that is, the departments responsible for external communications—receive regular training on greenwashing. Furthermore, the company manages these issues systematically and internally to ensure that no misunderstandings or problems arise regarding greenwashing, whether in campaigns, activities, advertising, or the day-to-day operations related to carbon reduction. .

We likely receive more regular training in this area than other companies, and our employees themselves feel a strong sense of responsibility—they understand that greenwashing must never lead to negative public perception, scrutiny, or similar issues. So, regarding the point you raised, I think it’s safe to say that other companies—and especially energy companies like ours that generate carbon emissions—are focusing more on this area and making greater efforts.

Finally, when you think about the near net-zero future and considering that the energy transition is accelerating as you mentioned, are you currently considering how to combine these changes and visions with your communication strategy to better convey them to the public?

Basically, as I mentioned earlier, I believe the momentum of the energy transition has accelerated in line with this era of major AI transformation. I view this as having a naturally positive impact on carbon reduction and related areas, and in response to this era, we are accelerating the strategies we’ve already established. These strategies center on electric energy—which ultimately emits less carbon—as the energy of the future. So, to respond to this transition, we’re rapidly developing our LNG and power businesses as new growth pillars. Furthermore, given the immense responsibility we bear for achieving carbon neutrality, we’re also accelerating the transition to renewable energy—specifically wind, solar, and hydrogen—as I mentioned earlier.

Furthermore, to address climate change, not only our executive leadership but also the Board of Directors and SK Innovation’s operational units—such as the Sustainable Management Office and the business units themselves—are operating a management system based on shared responsibility and collaboration. Consequently, we are not only focusing on our business operations but also on our employees’ practical carbon reduction efforts and climate change response activities. Fourth, as you know, we have established and are implementing a roadmap as part of our mid- to long-term business strategy. Given all these comprehensive efforts, it will likely lead to faster carbon reduction in line with this era of the energy transition.