LG화학의 환경경영전략 및 시스템에 관한 사례연구

This study reviews the environmental strategies adopted by firms in general with regard to internal and external drivers. It also introduces and synthesizes the existing theories on the characteristics of firms and their environmental management strategies by stages of development. This study examines the case firm, LG Chem., with a perspective of typical development of environmental management. At the early stage, in 1980's, the case firm's environmental management was driven by the regulation like all the other firms in Korea. In the next stage, in 1990s, the case firm set voluntary standards, more stringent than the regulation, to seek win-win opportunities where both cost-saving and environmental improvement were attainable. The case firm tried to install environmental accounting system, and prepared environmental report. It also set long-term target of zero discharge in 1996 under which it succeeded to reduce 90% of air pollutants by 2002. Starting with the economic analysis of incinerator, various activities and efforts were made in this stage to find out the opportunities to cut down costs through environmental improvement. The case firm started to move next phase since 2000 where environmental management creates the source of competitiveness in terms of market as well as cost. It is still in transition towards integrated environmental management system to cope with the pressure from customers, international environmental agreements, product regulation etc.