■ Vice Chairman Kim Jun delivered a keynote speech at the SK Innovation Global Forum held in San Jose, the U.S., on June 11 and 12 (local time)

■ “Pushing forward with the business portfolio in electrification and recycling areas for the future growth”

■ SK Innovation plans to continue activities to build successful business partnerships, such as the MOU with TerraPower, a US-based next-generation nuclear energy company,

SK Innovation Vice Chairman Kim Jun presented a vision for a business direction in the future to respond to the age of great energy transition and announced that he plans to accelerate the innovation of the company’s green business model.

During his attendance at “SK Innovation Global Forum (hereafter, SKI Global Forum),” held in San Jose, California, the US, on June 11 (local time), Vice Chairman Kim gave a keynote speech, saying, “SK Innovation will drive forward the future business growth through development and expansion of low-carbon Green Portfolio, based on differentiated technologies.” He added, “We will build a business portfolio focused on electrification and recycling.”

Vice Chairman Kim mentioned, “With the trend to pursue carbon neutrality in response to the climate crisis, the world has quickly shifted to using low-carbon energy. The key is the circular economy that prevents pollution by reducing wastes and efficiently using resource.”

The SKI Global Forum started in 2012, and it has been a venue that SK Group holds to discover new growth engines for the future with the participation of major stakeholders. From June 11 to 12, SK Innovation held a forum related to the company’s business areas, including carbon reduction, resource circulation, and next-generation batteries, and shared global trends and expert knowledge with the local talent. This year, major management personnel participated in the forum, including Vice Chairman Kim Jun and CEO of SK On Jee Dong-seob.

SK Innovation already has successfully gained competitiveness with its own next-generation business affiliates, SK On (battery), SK IE Technology (battery separator), and SK Earthon (resource development/CCS), reviewing future strategy along with the emerging changes in energy mix.

In addition to SK Innovation’s own technologies, in electrification and recycling for the circular economy, the company plans to push forward with business cooperation projects with leading global and promising companies through equity investment or technical or business cooperation. SK Innovation has its own R&D capabilities through the SK Innovation Institute of Environmental Science & Technology, and it aims to continuously strengthen and expand the “Global Open Innovation” to the global network.

A good example is SK Innovation’s comprehensive business agreement last month with TerraPower, a US-based company for next-generation small modular reactors (SMR). TerraPower is an innovative company in the nuclear power industry and was established in 2008 by Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft. SK Innovation’s strategy is to expand business cooperation cases.

“To expand the green portfolio, the company is paying attention to various promising next-generation business fields, such as nuclear power (SMR), hydrogen energy, electric vehicle batteries and materials, energy solution for the electrification part. In the domain of recycling, SK Innovation will also continue to discover new growth engines in areas such as battery waste recycling and waste resource utilization,” said Vice Chairman Kim.

He also serves as the President of Green Business Committee of SK SUPEX Council, the highest consultative committee for SK Group management. Regarding the environmental business, as he takes a role in seeking joint investment opportunities and synergies between affiliates within the group, including SK Innovation, it is expected that the pace of growth and change will be faster based on efforts in carbon reduction.

SK Innovation states they will reach to “Net Zero” by 2050, producing zero greenhouse gases. In other words, the heart of the green business is to make net emission to zero, and SK Innovation is setting this as a key business strategy.

An official from SK Innovation said, “This forum is held with a goal to expand insights in various fields and human resource network for discovering new growth engines of the future. For strong execution of SK Innovation’s Carbon to Green strategy, we will continue hosting this global forum in the future.”

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In his keynote address at the SK Innovation Global Forum in San Jose, California, USA, on June 11 (local time), Vice Chairman of SK Innovation Kim Jun introduces SK Innovation’s direction of building an eco-friendly business portfolio and its commitment to innovating business models.