In the current period of economic uncertainty, LG Air Conditioning is making impressive progress towards sustainability. HVR talks to general manager Graham Hendra about what his company is doing on a global scale
The battle for customers in the electronics industry has never been fiercer, says Graham Hendra, general manager of LG Air conditioning.

The UK consumer is currently experiencing a lack of purchasing confidence as we move through a period of financial insecurity, and making electronic purchases may not be the top priority of many, he says.

'These issues, coupled with the threat of global warming and the near-hysteria that surrounds it as well as the government's constant pressure for us all to save energy, means that only the companies that set themselves apart from the competition will win business,' he says.
LG is expecting its sales of commercial air-conditioning products to increase from 30% of its total air conditioner sales to 50% by 2010.

To achieve these targets, however, Hendra says LG must understand its customers' demands to respect the environment. In a bid to achieve a vision of becoming one of the top three electronics and telecommunications companies by 2010, LG knows it must excel in developing and producing world-leading products while also improving its own products' sustainability. And that, and any profit gained, is only truly meaningful if it can increase it on a sustainable basis.

Proactive approach

'We have a proactive approach to environmental and energy awareness issues and we are increasing our research and development division by 70% to help focus on launching new greener, environmentally-considerate products,' Hendra says.

The company has already developed Hybrid COGEN - a gas-powered, combined heat and power generator and the Hybrid XEO - an energy-efficient inverter air conditioner which taps into geo-thermal energy. Both products use around 30% less energy.

Hendra says: 'The company has always applied sustainable management principles and we realise that there is a balance between creating value for our customers and respecting the environment.

'Eco-design, for instance, is very important to the principles of sustainability. LG is pioneering this within the industry. In response to the growing number of product and environmental regulations at the end of 2005 LG reorganised its Eco-Design Committee.

'This has led to even greater focus upon environmental issues as well as huge amounts of resource and effort being put into preventing pollution and developing a corporate sustainability management plan.'

Part of this was to declare an intention not to produce products containing any of the six hazardous substances specified by the EU including heavy metals such as lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium and its chemical compounds, as well as bromine-based flame retardants such as PBB and PBDE.

The company is also reducing its environmental impact in areas of development, production, and
circulation.

'By systematically integrating environmental practices into product design LG can reduce the overall environmental impact of a product from start to finish. Furthermore, to secure the environmental suitability of all products a Life Cycle Assessment [LCA] is performed at each stage of development to evaluate the product's environmental impact.'

LG also has several key strategies to reduce its negative impact on the environment, broadly based around the well known principles of reduce, reuse and recycle.

First, it chooses materials that can be easily recycled to ensure that the product can be simply broken down at the end of its life.
Secondly, it is improving the overall recyclability of its products by reducing the number of individual parts.
Thirdly, it is making more efficient use of resources by reducing the weight and volume of its products and using natural or recyclable materials.
And finally - perhaps most noticeably to its customers - it is improving energy efficiency by reducing power consumption and the use of standby electricity.

Energy usage

Hendra says: 'In terms of reducing the energy usage of our products we have designed all units to have low standby modes, some even switch off after three minutes of inactivity.
'Also with inverters and new efficient compressors, the units now use approximately 60% of the power they did ten years ago. For example our Multi V air-conditioning system utilises a high-efficiency inverter.
'The result is that compressors operate as necessary, depending on the load required. Operating costs are subsequently reduced by up to 60%, when compared with other air conditioning/heating devices with a single-speed compressor.'

LG is keen, however, to prove that it is not all talk or what is increasingly referred to as greenwash. 'LG has an eco manufacturing record,' Hendra says, 'and the figures speak for themselves.'

'Despite increasing output, CO2 emissions have been steadily reducing since 2004 when it took 5.5kg of CO2 to manufacture an average air-conditioning unit. By 2007, however, that figure was down to 3.9kg and this year we're aiming to get the total down to 2.9kg. 'And it's the small individual changes that are making a larger overall difference. 'As a result total CO2 emissions are down by about one fifth during the period and are expected to fall yet again this year.'