Hyundai Doosan Infracore, Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) Group’s construction equipment arm, became South Korea’s first company in its sector to pledge to reach net zero emissions in sites.

In an effort to actively respond to climate change, the company has recently announced a blueprint for going carbon-neutral across all its global business sites by 2050.

This mid-to-long-term project includes not only action plans and targets for carbon neutrality in business sites, but also carbon reduction strategies in the stage of product use to shift towards environment-friendly products.

Hyundai Doosan Infracore has come up with a mid-to-long-term plan to achieve carbon neutrality across all its production corporations around the world by 2050.

Based on the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) 1.5˚C scenario*, the plan is to reduce carbon emissions by 42% from 2020 levels by 2030 and by 71% by 2040, to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 ultimately.

To this end, the company plans to evaluate and implement possible action plans, such as pursuing process improvement across domestic (including Incheon and Gunsan) and overseas operations and switching to renewable energy (joining the RE100 initiative).

In particular, it plans to cut carbon emissions by 80% and to be powered by 100% renewable energy by 2040, then purchasing offset credits for the remaining carbon to ensure complete neutrality by 2050.
The entire corporate fleet of Hyundai Doosan Infracore is already being managed under the South Korean project to shift towards the pollution-free electric vehicles (K-EV100*).

In addition to the goal of achieving its net-zero ambition across all sites, the company also plans to cut emissions in the products’ use stage. To this end, it aims to launch electric excavators in 2023 and continue to expand its portfolio of eco-friendly products, such as electric batteries and hydrogen fuel cells.

“Our Norwegian production plant for articulated dump trucks (ADTs) has already converted to 100% renewable energy,” said an official of Hyundai Doosan Infracore. “We believe whether or not to realize green business transformation can make or break the future corporate value, and we will do our best to achieve our goals in this regard.”

* SBTi 1.5˚C scenario: A science-based emissions reduction initiative that drives ambitious climate action in the private sector by enabling companies to set science-based reduction targets.
It has recently unveiled a new strategy to increase minimum ambition in corporate target setting from “well below 2°C” to “1.5°C” above pre-industrial levels.

* RE100 (Renewable Energy 100%): A global corporate renewable energy initiative bringing together ambitious businesses voluntarily committed to be powered by 100% renewable energy, such as solar and wind power, by 2050.

* K-EV100: A South Korean project that offers financial support for companies that pledge to power their fleets entirely with electricity by 2030.