SEOUL, Korea – February 3, 2022 – SAMSUNG SDI significantly strengthens ESG management to increase stakeholder value and fulfill social responsibility.

SAMSUNG SDI announced that it will reestablish the ‘Sustainability Management Committee’ under the Board of Directors on January 1st and reorganize the ‘ESG Strategy Group’ within the planning team into the ‘Sustainability Management Secretariat’ on February 1st under the CFO.

The Sustainability Management Committee consists of four external directors. And, they make decisions about the company’s strategies and policies related to sustainability management and matters related to increasing shareholder value. The Sustainability Management Secretariat will be responsible for creating and implementing ESG strategies, responding to stakeholder collaboration requests, and publishing sustainability reports.

With this restructuring as an opportunity, SAMSUNG SDI plans to strengthen ESG management. As revealed in last year’s sustainability report, SAMSUNG SDI is promoting the transition to 100% renewable energy at all domestic and overseas business locations by 2050, starting with overseas manufacturing locations.

In addition, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we introduced energy-saving high-efficiency equipment, changed the operation mode of infrastructure facilities, introduced electric vehicles and electric buses for business use at domestic business locations, and set up electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
 
Also, in last year, in cooperation with a specialized company, we set up a waste battery recovery recycling system to promote waste battery recycling. SAMSUNG SDI plans to expand this distribution system to overseas subsidiaries as well.

Since SAMSUNG SDI published the sustainability report for the first time in industry, it has been publishing the report and transparently discloses information on ESG issues to stakeholders.

As a result of these efforts, SAMSUNG SDI was included in the 17th DJSI World Index of the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes (DJSI) assessment in last November. This is the highest record among the domestic companies.

SAMSUNG SDI signed up to a World Wildlife Fund (WWF) call for a moratorium on deep-sea mining with Google, BMW, and Volvo in March of 2021. The moratorium calls for a ban on deep seabed mining activities to protect the marine ecosystem.

SAMSUNG SDI joined cross-industry initiative project, “Cobalt for Development”, with BMW, BASF, and SAMSUNG Electronics.
And, we are putting our utmost effort to improve the working and living conditions for miners and their communities.

Meanwhile, on the 27th of last month, SAMSUNG SDI announced a new shareholder return policy along with the release of 2021 annual results. New policy states that an addition dividend of 5% to 10% of the annual free cash flow will be paid in addition to the existing dividend policy of KRW 1,000 for common shares (1,050 for preferred shares. We decided to increase shareholder value through additional dividends while maintaining a minimum return for shareholders through base dividends.

YOONHO CHOI, President and CEO of SAMSUNG SDI, said, “ESG management goes beyond social responsibility of a company and is an important strategy that determines the future competitiveness of companies.” He also added that “we will do our best to increase shareholder value by fulfilling social responsibility towards safety and environment and strengthening social contribution and mutual cooperation.”