Coway wins global nod for ESG, corporate transparency

Coway, a South Korean home appliances rental firm, has been honored at this year’s Business Integrity Society summit for its continuous commitment to a framework for environmental, social and governance, or ESG, standards as well as corporate transparency, the company said Tuesday.

It was chosen as an “Excellent Anti-Corruption Company” at the BIS Summit 2021 Anti-Corruption Awards held last week by the UN Global Compact and the Korea Social Responsible Investment Forum.

“We have been selected as an excellent anti-corruption company in recognition of our efforts to improve corporate transparency and risk management based on ESG,” said Lee Hae-sun, CEO of Coway. “We will continue to strive to strengthen our sustainable business system by actively fulfilling our responsibilities to our stakeholders.”

At the BIS summit, which took place at the Four Seasons hotel in Seoul on March 26, the South Korean firm also participated in the pledge to create an enabling integrity society that strengthens corporate competitiveness based on ESG, in agreement with the BIS’s effort to create an anti-corrupt business environment.

Coway’s commitment to the ESG framework dates as far back as 2006. Recently, the firm announced that by 2030 it plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent vs. 2019. In the mid- to-long-term, the company plans to operate on 100 percent renewable energy and be fully carbon neutral by 2050.

Coway also has actively practiced corporate social responsibility. Under its “Safe Ground Water Project,” Coway has provided water purifiers to rural areas with contaminated water resources with the aim to improve their access to clean water since 2015, in conjunction with the Ministry of Environment.

By The Korea Herald staff  (khnews@heraldcorp.com)