LOTTE Corporation announced on the 31st that it plans to expand its environmentally friendly business as part of its ESG management and establish itself as a leader in domestic governance.
LOTTE aims for carbon neutrality in its food, retail, and hotel subsidiaries by 2040, and for the chemical sector by 2050 in response to climate change.
In 2022, it established the "Carbon Neutral Roadmap 1.0" to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and minimize negative impacts on the environment, and in 2023, it updated the existing roadmap to "Carbon Neutral Roadmap 2.0." The Carbon Neutral Roadmap 2.0 includes plans to reduce emissions at business sites by 22% by 2030 and by 61% by 2040 compared to 2018.
In addition, LOTTE is striving to create social value that positively impacts society based on cooperation with stakeholders such as partners and the community.
LOTTE operates a support program for partners' overseas sales channels as an activity to grow together with partners. The "LOTTE-Korea Expo," first held in Thailand in 2018, has seen participation from over 1,300 corporations by last year. Through about 9,000 export consultations, the cumulative consultation results amount to $700 million (approximately 960 billion won).
In June of last year, it hosted the "2024 LOTTE-Korea Brand Expo" for the first time in Mexico, a Central American country. Mexico is one of the countries where K-brands are gaining popularity. In line with the Korean Wave trend, 100 small and medium-sized enterprises in the beauty, fashion, food, and daily necessities sectors participated in the event held in Mexico. Among them, 47 companies expecting success in the Mexican market held one-on-one export consultations with local distributors for products such as mask packs, cleansers, tteokbokki, and seaweed snacks.
LOTTE is also taking the lead in establishing governance. In March of last year, it introduced the "senior independent director system" for 10 listed corporations to build a sound corporate governance structure. This system aims to promote balance and checks by appointing a senior independent director to represent independent directors when an in-house director serves as the chair of the board.
A LOTTE Corporation official noted, "We expect that the introduction of the senior independent director system will further strengthen independent decision-making and oversight functions within the board."