POSCO Holdings released its 2025 Sustainability Report on the 25th of last month. This report reflects for the first time an integrated ESG disclosure system applied across the entire group. It is the first time the group has standardized disclosure items and data aggregation methods, and the system covers seven consolidated operating companies: POSCO, POSCO International, POSCO E&C, POSCO Future M, POSCO DX, POSCO Steeleon and POSCO M-Tech.
Late June to early July is the period when publication of sustainability reports by domestic companies is concentrated. Publication itself is no longer a rare event. The point of interest has moved to whether the indicators each company puts out can be read by the same yardstick.
Under an arrangement in which a parent company and its affiliates each issue their own reports, the scope of calculation and the timing of aggregation are apt to diverge even for the same item. That is why group-level totals or year-by-year comparisons become difficult. POSCO Holdings reworked item definitions and aggregation rules ahead of the individual performance figures.
A double materiality assessment was used to select the key issues. It is a methodology that draws out material topics by placing side by side the impact of corporate activity on the environment and society and the impact of external sustainability factors on a company's financial position. The seven operating companies each carried out an assessment under the same criteria, and the results were then combined from a group perspective to determine the key ESG issues.
The report divided the issues identified into core and general. For issues classified as core, the holding company and the seven operating companies gave a common account of four areas: governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets. The format was fixed so that eight legal entities would explain the same issues within the same framework.
The internal control system for raising the reliability of disclosed information was also reworked. The newly created 'ESG Ambassador', an organization made up of working-level staff in fields such as carbon neutrality, safety and finance, takes part in the whole process from the report planning stage through data production and verification. It reads as a design intended to narrow the distance between the departments that produce the data and the departments that write the report.
In external assessments, POSCO Holdings received last year an A rating in the MSCI ESG assessment, grade 1 in the social and governance categories of the ISS ESG Quality Score, and an integrated A+ grade from the Korea Institute of Corporate Governance and Sustainability. In the World Benchmarking Alliance's 'just transition' category, it was the only domestic company named to the list of leading companies. Changes against the immediately preceding grade in each assessment were not included in this announcement.
The disclosure standards adopted by the report and the scope and level of third-party assurance are not confirmed in this announcement. The comparability of performance figures such as emissions or reduction targets can be examined only after those two are made clear. The effectiveness of the integrated system will become apparent from whether the same items carry the same definitions in next year's edition.
The reports of POSCO Holdings, POSCO Future M, POSCO DX, POSCO Steeleon and POSCO M-Tech have been posted on the holding company's website (www.posco-inc.com). The remaining three, POSCO, POSCO International and POSCO E&C, have given notice of June 30 as their publication date.
