Staff Q&A: Sourcing Renewable Energy in Asia Pacific

Published 26 minutes ago

Uploaded by Owens Corning

“Our People Who Change the World” is a series of articles presented in the Owens Corning publishing house Sustainability Report 2023.

While attending university, Cheria Liu saw a growing need to help companies reduce their environmental impact and decided it would be a great career path for her. With a degree in environmental engineering, Cheria initially focused on water conservation and other elements of sustainability. However, upon arriving at Owens Corning, she began working on renewable energy sourcing for our facilities in the Asia Pacific region and found it to be a rewarding experience. Cheria has been with Owens Corning since 2020, and her in-depth knowledge of energy sourcing has made her a valuable asset as we work to achieve our energy goals.

About Owens Corning’s Unique Position in Renewable Energy

The interesting thing about Owens Corning is that we sell composite products to the wind industry, and their end products generate renewable energy, which we then buy. So there is a whole value chain. Demand for wind energy in the Asia-Pacific region is just starting to grow because there are fewer requirements to buy renewable energy than in the U.S. But within our own value chain, we encourage companies to buy renewable energy as well. We can use our influence and encourage all of our partners and suppliers to get more involved in these sustainability efforts.

On the joint nature of our efforts in the field of energy acquisition

We have regular check-ins with our global energy teams. They give us feedback on how the global side is doing and we share our progress with them. They also give us feedback on how we can do it better and of course we need buy-in from the leadership on that because they support us on that. There’s also a lot of cross-functional work because these projects require a lot of collaboration with other teams like the operations team and the legal team. So I think our broader business supports collaboration because they already support sustainability projects.

On the differences in sourcing in the Asia-Pacific region

We have two strategies to achieve our goal of 100% renewable electricity in the Asia Pacific region. We are implementing solar rooftop projects for all power plants here in China, India and Korea. The renewable energy acquisition is completely different in these three countries, so we have different strategies for each of them. For example, the possibility of acquiring solar and wind energy is very limited in Korea. In China, we will first focus on solar panels and have several PPAs to achieve 100% step by step. These different strategies require cooperation across the company and I believe that all our employees are working together to achieve our goals.

Owens Corning

Owens Corning is a global leader in building materials, committed to building a sustainable future through materials innovation. Our three integrated businesses – Roofing, Insulation and Composites – deliver durable, sustainable and energy-efficient solutions that leverage our unique knowledge of materials, manufacturing and the marketplace to help our customers win and grow. We operate globally, at a human scale, with approximately 18,000 employees in 30 countries who are dedicated to creating value for our customers and shareholders and making a difference in the communities where we work and live. Founded in 1938 and headquartered in Toledo, Ohio, USA, Owens Corning had 2023 sales of $9.7 billion. For more information, visit www.owenscorning.com.