Please tell us about yourself.

My name is Kwon Sunchul, and I lead the Safety, Health & Environment Team at Amorepacific. I have 17 years of experience in the field, and I joined Amorepacific three years ago from a shipbuilding and pharmaceutical background to join our journey in creating a more beautiful world. My key role in this job is to ensure that our internal procedures comply with global safety, health, and environmental standards. It is a regulatory affairs type of position, working with numerous aspects of our business to ensure that we are handling beauty-related issues well and also finding out what we can proactively do to respond to global challenges in general, including the use of plastics and climate change.
I love to play basketball. I’ve always loved playing the sport and have built basketball clubs with friends in the past. Basketball is a great team sport that requires strong individual players to cooperate well together. I love that it is similar to the work that I do - it requires much teamwork between various functions and teams within an organization.

What does the Safety, Health & Environment Team do?

Safety, Health & Environment Team is a part of Amorepacific’s Sustainability Management Division. We establish and operate company-level strategies for safety, health, environment, and energy. SHE, in short, many companies, including Amorepacific, operate this function within a single team because these affairs are closely related, and their solutions often create synergies. As a SHE team in a beauty company, we work on packaging regulations, chemical safety, climate change, and mental and workplace health for our employees. Collaboration and teamwork with various departments are essential. We often communicate through meetings, briefing sessions, and bulletin boards and operate special task force teams with multiple functions like supply chain management, research, marketing, and sales. For example, in March, we launched a chemical database system, and currently, we are working on a packaging materials evaluation system and IT system for safety & health management.

What has Amorepacific done for safety, health, and the environment?

In March 2021, Amorepacific became the first Korean beauty company to join the global RE100 initiative. The goal is to use 100% renewable energy to power all of its production sites and offices, and we are well on our way to achieving this goal. Our use of renewable energy from sunlight, as well as solar and geothermal heat, has increased tenfold over the past five years. We have also adopted Korea’s Green Premium policy this year. It would be great to become the first in Korea to achieve both RE100 and carbon neutrality.
We have also been working to reduce our dependence on plastics. Refill Station is one of our new best practices. The first station opened in Amore Store Gwanggyo last year, and the second one recently in E-mart Jayang. It has become a place of significant interest in Seoul for those supporting environmental protection. A single-use of Refill Station service can cut down on the amount of plastic used to make three water bottles.Furthermore, Amorepacific has continued with our occupational health and safety efforts. Last year, we launched the We Care Health program to help our members look after their mental health and deal with stress during the COVID-19 pandemic. A virtual reality program will also soon be ready for safety training. It will help make these exercises more immersive, more realistic and allow members to learn and practice everyday safety, such as using a fire extinguisher, escape techniques, and laboratory safety.

Amorepacific recently announced its five sustainability management goals, the 2030 A MORE Beautiful Promise. Can you tell us more about this?

Amorepacific announced its 2030 A MORE Beautiful Promise in June - sustainability management goals we aim to achieve by 2030. A total of five promises are set under two guiding pillars: moving forward together with customers and society and coexisting responsibly with nature.
First, we will deliver the value of environmental friendliness and social inclusion through our products, for example, reducing the carbon footprint, using natural ingredients, and adopting universal designs. It will help customers live a more sustainable lifestyle simply by using our products. At the same time, we will promote diversity and inclusion for harmonious growth with all of our stakeholders. We will achieve carbon neutrality and zero-waste-to-landfill across our production sites worldwide and thereby contribute to solving climate change and coexist with nature. The minimum use of plastic packaging materials and 100% recyclable, reusable, and compostable materials is another promise. Lastly, we will invest KRW 10 billion into the conservation of bioresources, which can later be used as cosmetic ingredients, and increase the use of certified sustainable palm oil by up to 90% by the year 2023.
These promises require the combined effort of all of Amorepacific's members and teams, and the SHE team will take on the role of supporting various functions' participation.

ESG is rising in both Korea and abroad. What is ESG and why is it important?

ESG stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance – three factors that measure non-financial performance. Because climate change increasingly affects investment returns, investors demand consistent, reliable data to measure ESG performance. They have now become an important part, alongside financial factors, of the investment decision-making processes. As such, many Korean companies and financial institutions are integrating ESG into their business goals. Today ESG is much more than merely doing a good deed – it now determines the future of the business.
Such a change is also found among our customers. Today they are eco-conscious and look into the product or brand’s environmental efforts when they make purchases, just as they look up the nutrition table for food items. So companies must also be more socially and environmentally responsible for meeting consumer demand. Amorepacific agrees that companies are responsible for providing customers with readily recyclable products.

What's your goal and vision as a safety, health, and environment management & sustainability specialist at Amorepacific?

As a safety, health, and environment specialist, my overriding goal is to encourage our colleagues to take an interest in sustainability, encourage their participation, and provide the support they need to integrate these values into their work. Amorepacific handles everything related to the cosmetics business, from ingredient research to product development, manufacturing, marketing, and sales, which gives me many exciting, challenging opportunities for cooperation. As always, I will do my best for the well-being, safety, and happiness of all of Amorepacific's members. Thank you.