SK Innovation joins Vietnam's 'carbon-free' project

Jee Dong-seob, second from right, head of Double Bottom Line at SK Innovation and CEO of SK Lubricants, with Nguyen Tang Binh, center, Vice Chairman of the Quang Ngai Provincial People's Committee and officials from Doosan Heavy Industries, Vingroup and Ingine after signing a MOU at the Quang Ngai provincial government office in Vietnam, Thursday. / Courtesy of SK Innovation

By Baek Byung-yeul

SK Innovation has joined a Vietnamese provincial government's environmental project as part of its corporate social responsibility to decrease carbon emissions in the Southeast Asian country, the energy and chemical arm of SK Group said Friday.

The company said it signed a multiparty memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Vietnam's Quang Ngai provincial government, Doosan Heavy Industries, wave-energy technology company Ingine and Vietnamese company Vingroup, Thursday.

Under the MOU, they will work on providing environmentally friendly technologies to make the province's An Binh Island carbon-free.

SK Innovation will offer its plastic recycling technology and Doosan Heavy, which built a desalination plant there and donated it to the provincial government in 2012, will provide repair and maintenance services for the facility.

Ingine will build a wave-power station there by 2020 and Vingroup will donate environmentally friendly electric scooters and build charging stations on the island.

“We expect this initiative that was kicked off with an idea to make An Binh Island a carbon-free island will be a successful case of a social value-creating activity for the environment,” Jee Dong-seob, head of Double Bottom Line at SK Innovation and CEO of SK Lubricants, said. “We will do our best to make An Binh Island a great example of an eco-friendly island.”

Vice Chairman of the Quang Ngai Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Tang Binh said: “The carbon-free island initiative will help boost local socio-economic development, reduce pollution and ensure energy security for sustainable development in the district.”