This file photo shows the buildings of South Korea’s major companies in Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Feb. 9 (Korea Bizwire) — The vast majority of large South Korean companies plan to expand their budget and personnel further for ESG departments this year, a major business lobby group said Tuesday.
ESG is short for environmental, social and governance criteria using factors to evaluate companies on how far advanced they are in the sectors of environmental protection, social justice and business ethics.
According to a survey conducted by the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) of ESG managers at the nation’s top 300 companies in revenue terms, 81.4 percent of the respondents said their company planned to expand the scale of ESG departments this year.
As for the creation of dedicated ESG committees, 64 percent of the respondents said their employer had already established such a committee, followed by 24.4 percent who said they planned to do so.
At 82.6 percent, the vast majority of the respondents said they were already operating or preparing a dedicated ESG department.
When it comes to the length of career for workers in ESG departments, 93.3 percent of the respondents replied that they had less than five years of work experience.
In response to a question asking about the biggest difficulties in ESG management, 37.6 percent pointed out the lack of ESG expertise, followed by 10.8 percent who noted the shortage of experienced ESG managers.
More than two-thirds of the respondents picked ‘E’ (Environmental) as the most important factor among ESG.
As for the top priority task in the ‘E’ area, 37.1 percent pointed out reductions in carbon emissions, followed by the use of renewable energy (23 percent), and the development of eco-friendly technology (13.5 percent).
J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)
