SK highlights groupwide outreach in 2023 report

SK Inc., the strategic investment holding company of South Korea’s second-largest conglomerate SK Group, published its annual environmental, social and governance reports Monday, including details of the company’s business management and climate-related finance plans.

The company said it has released three such reports: the sustainability report carrying the company’s ESG management strategy; the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosure with the company’s climate risk management strategy; and a special report on the company’s plans for investment and direction based on its ESG strategy.

“We are taking a step ahead to strengthen communication with the market and major stakeholders, to gear up to the worldwide movement requiring companies to disclose their ESG strategies,” SK said in a statement.

While there are countries adopting policies to require ESG disclosure around the world, it is currently voluntary in South Korea.

In this year’s report, the company also included information of three more affiliates of SK Biopharmaceuticals, SK IE Technology and SK Square to its list of seven affiliates, SK said. The information on other four affiliates, SK Innovation, SK Telecom, SK Networks, and SKC were available from last year.

“We will take in more opinions of the various stakeholders and make further efforts so that our ESG strategy is recognized as exemplary, not only domestically but also at a global standard,” said Park Dong-ju, vice president of the portfolio planning office at SK Inc.

In 2022, SK Inc. received the highest ratings from globally renowned ESG assessors at the Morgan Stanley Capital International and Dow Jones Sustainability Index, the company said. The company also received an A+ score for the third consecutive year from the Korea Institute of Corporate Governance and Sustainability, a local ESG evaluating agency.

Since 2018, SK has measured the social values it has created in a year in monetary value. In 2022, the company said it generated social value of 1.48 trillion won ($1.16 billion) in economic indirect contributions, 94.1 billion won in environmental performance and 79.7 billion won in social performance.

Social value refers to the value that a company has contributed to solving or alleviating social problems, such as climate change, according to SK.