COVID-19 Response and Prevention

2020 was a year of continued crises and difficulties due to the global outbreak of COVID-19. Hanwha Corporation established and implemented response strategies to overcome the pandemic quickly and systematically and to provide a safe and healthy environment for all employees and on-site personnel. In addition, we are striving to overcome the global pandemic hand in hand with our executives and employees as well as various stakeholders, including our suppliers and local communities, and lay the foundation for coexistence in a safe society.

Support for the Safety and Health of the Local Community

Hanwha Corporation donated various hygiene products and protective equipment to safeguard the local community from the risk of COVID-19 infection and to promote the safety and health of the local community. In February 2020, we provided protective equipment, including 150,000 masks, for vulnerable populations and medical professionals in Daegu and Gyeongsangbuk-do where COVID-19 was rapidly spreading. In March 2020, we donated funds for overcoming COVID-19 to families of veterans, such as Persons of National Merit. During winter, when COVID-19 and influenza prevailed at the same time, we assumed our responsibility in securing the safety of the local community as a topmost priority in the face of social and economic crises by producing and delivering personal hygiene kits to 10,000 households from vulnerable populations.

Employee Health Promotion

Hanwha Corporation upholds maintaining the health and safety of all our employees as the root and primary principle for achieving our ESH management vision and operates a variety of health management and promotion programs for all our employees.

Work Environment Management

Hanwha Corporation endeavors to protect our employees and workers from harmful factors and to provide a safe and pleasant work environment. For all harmful factors, we collect the MSDS and provide the information to our employees and closely monitor the health of staff who are exposed to specific harmful factors by conducting special checkups.
In addition, we measure and manage the work environment and exposure to harmful factors by establishing internal standards that are stronger than the legal standards in order to provide a safer working environment to our employees. Through these efforts, we achieved 'ZERO' Occupational Illness Frequency Rate(OIFR) in all our business divisions for the past three years.

Safety Climate Diagnosis and Evaluation

Hanwha Corporation has developed a Safety Climate measurement program to establish a more mature safety culture. We measure Hanwha Corporation’s overall Safety Climate level as well as strengths and weaknesses of each specific indicator and establish effective safety culture strategies that are optimized for our organization.

Implementation of ‘Safety Day’

Hanwha Corporation designates a cycle for each plant and implements a 'Safety Day' participated by all employees. On 'Safety Day', the plants share information on the importance of safety and raise awareness by suspending all production in the plants, sharing their on-site improvement activities, such as various safety-related education and training sessions, intensive inspection activities, and small group safety improvement meetings, sharing results and feedback, and concentrating only on safety and health activities.

Air Pollutant Management

Hanwha Corporation conducts various activities to minimize the generation of air pollutants such as total hydrocarbons (THC) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) which are the principal sources of fine dust.
As a means to reduce the emission of air pollutants, we invested in new preventive facilities, including improvement of existing air pollution prevention facilities, installation of SCR (Selective Catalyst Reduction) in the manufacturing processes, replacement of boiler burners (low-NOx burners), and installation of air pollutant prevention equipment at the rear of the organic solvent storage tank.
Furthermore, we have implemented and are operating the 'ESHG (Environment Safety Health Greenhouse-Gas) System', which is our internal environmental management system, to accurately monitor air pollutants. Through these efforts, Hanwha Corporation currently manages the emission levels of air pollutants at 50% or less compared to legal standards and plans to develop and apply a new ESHG program to establish a more sustainable environmental management system.

Water Resource Management

Hanwha Corporation is continuously monitoring and investing in facilities for sustainable water resource management. We gain trust in our pipes by conducting periodic leak detections for water and wastewater pipes buried within the company. We have also expanded and installed new facilities for water conservation.
In the case of Yeosu Plant of the Defense Division, we minimized the discharge of pollutants by establishing a water pollutant (NO3, COD, SS, pH, etc.) and water nlet/discharge new monitoring system for the total nitrogen treatment plant, and prevent risks of water contamination beforehand.

Resource Circulation Activities

Hanwha Corporation recognizes the gravity of resource depletion and environmental problems caused by waste and strives to transition to a circular economy that uses resources efficiently.
We aim to minimize generation of waste in our business and production processes, maximize resource efficiency by establishing a resource circulation process that recycles inevitable waste as much as possible, and minimize the environmental impact of waste.

Waste Management Hanwha Corporation minimizes the amount of waste generated by managing waste sources and promotes eco-friendly management activities by thoroughly separating generated waste and maximizing recycling. The entire process of tracking, managing, and treating generated waste is monitored through the government’s ‘Allbaro System’, and the collected data is analyzed to come up with measures to reduce the amount of waste generated and to make improvements in management. Additionally, we introduced a real-name policy for waste management to encourage all employees to be more responsible in disposing and recycling waste. Based on these efforts, the Yeosu Plant of the Defense Division received a commendation from the Minister of Environment for four resource recycling and waste reduction activities, including the reuse of ethanol byproducts as carbon sources for wastewater treatment.

Development of Plastic Waste Recycling Facility The Momentum Division working on new technologies to recycle plastic waste, one of the main culprits of environmental pollution. We are dedicated to create a greener ecosystem that recycles plastic through consistent R&D activities such as extracting oil through pyrolysis and reusing it as fuel.

Voluntary implementation
of a fine dust reduction project

Boeun Plant of the Global Division has signed a voluntary fine dust reduction project agreement with Geumgang Basin Environment Agency and manages fine dust generated at plant by applying standards that are stricter than the permissible emission standards. In addition, the Daejeon Plant of the Defense Division is also implementing the 'Voluntary Reduction Agreement for Fine Dust Reduction'. As a leading green company, Hanwha Corporation will continue to protect the environment of local communities.

Signing Ceremony for Voluntary Fine Dust Reduction (Boeun Plant)

Hanwha Corporation’s Yeosu Plant receives the Resource Circulation Leading Company Prize

Based on our drive to realize eco-friendly management, Hanwha Yeosu Plant of the Defense Division created an eco-friendly plant which minimizes environmental impact to come within 10% of the average emission unit of the industry in air pollutant emission, water pollutant emission, and waste generation by establishing, implementing, and continuously improving ESH management plans.
In addition, in order to reduce the environmental load throughout
the entire production process, we
established a byproduct reuse system with
the mindset that waste is another resource
and actively promoted activities to reduce
the amount of waste generated and raw
materials consumed.
We received a commendation from the
Minister of Environment in 2016 and
have been continuously maintaining and
improving the virtuous resource circulation
system ever since.

• Best Practice 1

  Reuse of ethanol by-products as external carbon sources for wastewater treatment

  

  Conceived from the idea that methanol is used as an external carbon source in the denitrification process of wastewater treatment, we reuse 50% of the ethanol by-product generated in the dehydration process as a wastewater treatment chemical, whereby we are able to achieve two positive effects of suppressing the generation of ethanol byproduct wastes and reducing the use of methanol, a toxic substance prone to accidents.

• Best Practice 2

  Reuse of by-products of dilute sulfuric acid as a PH adjuster for wastewater

  

  Conceived from the idea that sulfuric acid is used to neutralize pH increased in the denitrification process of the wastewater treatment facility, we reuse the by-products of dilute sulfuric acid (70%) as a wastewater treatment chemical, whereby we are able to reduce generated waste alongside the economic effect of reduced cost of separately purchasing concentrated sulfuric acid.

• Best Practice 3

  ZERO generation of sludge from the production process by changing the wastewater treatment system

  

  When we operated the wastewater treatment facility for the process separately from the wastewater treatment facility within the plant, we came across the problem of both process sludge and organic wastewater sludge generating together. In order to improve the efficiency of sludge coagulation and dewatering, we integrated the treatment for process wastewater and industrial wastewater. As a result, we were able to reduce the generation of inorganic sludge to zero, and reduce the purchase cost of coagulant aids and increase ewatering efficiency by integrating the treatment of wastewater containing large amounts of coagulants.

• Best Practice 4

  Reduction of wastewater sludge by replacing the filter plate of the dehydrator in the wastewater treatment plant

  

  In order to improve the shortcoming that the filter plate of the dehydrator is frequently deformed, whereby lowering efficiency in dewatering the sludge, we switched to a material with higher elasticity that can withstand higher dewatering pressure than the existing material. Changing the material of the filter plate resulted in elongation of the filter plate’s lifespan, and we were able to reduce not only the generation of organic wastewater sludge due to the decrease in moisture content of the wastewater sludge, but also the generation of filter plate waste.

Waste Plastic Recycling Process