[Global Finance Awards] Kyobo Life Insurance tops sustainability ranking for 13 straight years

Kyobo Life Insurance has been continuously incorporating sustainable development concepts into its business strategies and the effort has been acknowledged in an industry-wide index for its socially responsible efforts.

The firm topped the 2022 Korean Sustainability Index among local insurance companies on Thursday, marking its 13th consecutive year of securing the top place since 2010.

The KSI is a standard for measuring corporate sustainability based on ISO 26000, a global social responsibility guideline outlined by the International Organization for Standardization. Over 210 Korean firms in 49 industries are ranked each year based on the index by over 26,000 people including experts, consumers, local community members, investors and non-governmental organizations.

The Korean insurance company said it attributed its high ranking to its corporate philosophy of “cooperative development with concerned persons.”

Under this initiative, Kyobo Life insurance inaugurated its Sustainable Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance Committee in March, to foster ESG management. It became the industry's first to hire two female outside directors in the same month, and introduced various ESG policies such as implementing a paperless office by introducing digital documents and a digital subscription system, and developing an open innovation platform to support startups.

The company said its corporate social responsibility programs, such as its project to aid children in need and its program to support young athletes, also earned the insurance provider high scores.