Hankook Tire sets policy to build a sustainable value chain for natural rubber

• - Presents guidelines on human rights, environment and management transparency to secure sustainability of natural rubber value chain
• - Expects to improve productivity, quality, quality of life of natural rubber growers, and to minimize environmental impacts

October 23, 2018 (Seoul, Korea) - Hankook Tire, a leading global tire company, has established a policy that specifically sets social responsibility of natural rubber value chain. The policy aims to secure economic, social and environmental sustainability of the natural rubber supply value.

With the establishment of a sustainable value chain of natural rubber, a major raw material for tires, Hankook Tire plans to help improve the overall quality of life of the natural rubber growers, generally smallholders, and to upgrade productivity and quality of natural rubber.

Through the policy, each party of the natural rubber value chain, including growers, dealers, processors and manufacturers are obliged not only to comply with the laws and regulations of the countries in which they operate but also to fulfill their social responsibility in diverse fields such as human rights, environment and management transparency.

Guidelines for human rights include respect for employees’ free will for labor, compliance with the minimum employment age regulations of each country and prohibition of discrimination. In the environmental sector, conservation of biodiversity, utilization of environmentally friendly water resources, optimization of energy usage, and prevention of resource depletion are regulated. Efforts should also be made to enhance transparency of the complex natural rubber value chain, which ranges from growers to manufacturers.

Hankook Tire will conduct a biennial CSR assessment toward their partners and evaluate their compliance with the policy. Together, they will make great efforts to minimize the social and environmental impacts that might result from non-compliance.

Hankook Tire is continuously working towards fulfilling its commitment and responsibility as a top-level sustainable corporation in the rapidly changing global business environment. The company has also made every effort in investment for sustainable growth and substantive performance in economic, environmental and social area. As a result, it was listed in Dow Jones Sustainability Indices World (DJSI World), the world’s foremost sustainability and investment assessment index, for three consecutive years from 2016 to 2018, proving its status as a representative company of sustainability management.