Nam Hyun-woo has worked as a staff writer at The Korea Times since 2013, mostly covering business and politics. He currently belongs to the Business Desk where he covers topics such as emerging tech, AI, ICT and Korea's chaebol community. Prior to joining the team, he was the paper's correspondent for the presidential office of Korea during the Yoon Suk Yeol and Moon Jae-in administrations.
S-Oil to bet on clean water startup, secure emission credits
By Nam Hyun-woo
S-Oil CEO Hussain Al-Qahtani speaks during a meeting with employees at the company's plant in Ulsan on Sept. 22. Courtesy of S-Oil
By Nam Hyun-woo
S-Oil said Monday it will invest in a domestic startup developing facilities for clean water supplies and secure 13,000 tons of emission reduction credits annually.
According to the refiner, it will invest in Glory & Tech, which develops and installs water supply facilities and renewable energy systems in developing countries. S-Oil did not reveal the amount of the investment.
Glory & Tech is a company pursuing Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects. CDM, defined in Article 12 of the Kyoto Protocol, allows developed nations obliged to reduce emissions to implement emissions-reduction projects in developing countries. In return for the projects, developed nations can earn saleable certified emissions reduction credits.
As part of the program, Glory & Tech has installed water supply facilities and renewable energy systems in Cambodia, the Philippines, Myanmar, Mongolia and Vietnam.
By investing in Glory & Tech, S-Oil will earn emission credits worth 13,000 tons of CO2 every year. S-Oil said it will collaborate with Glory & Tech further, so it can establish a virtuous cycle of corporate social responsibility (CSR).
“This investment bears significance as the company came up with a new type of CSR activity in which it invests in small- and medium-sized enterprises to help improve people's lives in developing countries,” an S-Oil official said.
The company said it has recognized climate change as an imminent task it has to address and is making systematic efforts to control emissions. Through its own energy monitoring system, the company last year reduced emissions at its plant in Ulsan by 6 percent from a year earlier.
In 2018, S-Oil replaced the fuel for the boiler at the Ulsan plant from Bunker-C oil to liquefied natural gas.
Along with those efforts, the company is carrying out a series of CSR activities to join the global movement to cope with climate change. Since last year, S-Oil has been providing cooking stoves with high energy efficiency in Myanmar for free to reduce emissions there.