Chairman Chey Tae-won: "ESG Management and Empathy for Humans Will Be the Solution to Overcoming Crisis"

Choi Tae-won Attends Tokyo Forum 2020

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoonju Hwang] SK Chairman Chey Tae-won emphasized the need to accelerate corporate-level ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) management to overcome environmental crises critical to human survival, and especially to cultivate empathy towards humans.

Chairman Chey made these remarks in his opening speech at the 'Tokyo Forum 2020,' jointly hosted by the Choi Jong-hyun Academic Foundation and the University of Tokyo on December 3, under the theme of 'Global Environmental Crisis and Global Governance.'

Now in its second year following last year, the Tokyo Forum was held online over two days until the 4th, considering the COVID-19 situation. Chairman Chey attended as the chairman of the Choi Jong-hyun Academic Foundation, established by SK in honor of the late Choi Jong-hyun’s commitment to talent development.

Chairman Chey stated, "We live in the so-called 'Anthropocene,' an era where human greed and selfishness have caused environmental disasters," and emphasized, "We urgently need to devise new systems and methodologies to ultimately change the harmful behaviors towards the environment."

The Anthropocene is a geological concept proposed in 2000 by Nobel Chemistry laureate Paul Crutzen, referring to the period when human activities have a significant impact on the Earth's environment.

Chairman Chey said, "Accelerating ESG management, where companies pursue eco-friendly businesses, create social value (SV), and maintain transparent governance, will be the solution to overcoming environmental crises and the COVID-19 pandemic."

He stressed that companies are already being evaluated in the market based on their ESG management efforts and achievements, and as these value measurement systems become more sophisticated, corporate behaviors will also change. In this regard, Chairman Chey explained that SK has established the Value Balancing Alliance (VBA), a non-profit organization with global companies such as BASF, Deutsche Bank, and Novartis, to create international standards for measuring social value.

Chairman Chey continued, "There must be a corresponding reward system for corporate ESG management performance," introducing SK’s Social Performance Incentive (SPC) system, which financially rewards the social value measured from products made by social enterprises.

Finally, Chairman Chey emphasized, "These strategies and systems only have meaning if there is voluntary participation arising from within our hearts," adding, "Above all, empathy?the ability to understand and share emotions with those hurt by COVID-19, environmental disasters, indifference, and hatred?is what we need most right now."

Meanwhile, on the first day of the forum, December 3, a special dialogue session featured Dominic O’Neill, Managing Director of the World Economic Forum (WEF), Johan Rockstr?m, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, and Christina Figueres, former Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, discussing global nature conservation and sustainable growth strategies.

On the second day, December 4, panel discussions were held on topics including ▲protection and management of global environmental assets ▲changes in global food supply and consumption and the establishment of circular economy promotion systems ▲and the use of digital transformation (DT) for environmental protection.

The Tokyo Forum, conducted online by connecting participants worldwide through studios set up at the Choi Jong-hyun Academic Foundation and the University of Tokyo, was attended by over 40 global scholars, international organization officials, and business leaders, with approximately 4,500 viewers tuning in from around the world online.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.