SK Group's 6 Eco-Friendly Companies Move to Jongno Tower 'Green Campus'

SK On and 6 Affiliates with Over 1,200 Employees Move to Jongno Tower

"Accelerating New Business Development... Synergy through Information Sharing"

A shared office scene within the 'SK Green Campus' launched on the 30th at Jongno Tower in Gongpyeong-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul. (Photo by SK)

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] SK Group is launching the 'SK Green Campus,' which brings together personnel from six affiliates to accelerate eco-friendly management. The goal is to gather about 1,200 employees from the group's core new business affiliates such as SK On, Energy, and E&S in one space to speed up new business development and management. This attempt to create management synergy by bringing employees from multiple affiliates into one space is the first of its kind among domestic companies in Korea.

SK announced that on the 30th, it officially began operating the Green Campus at Jongno Tower in Gongpyeong-dong, Seoul, where employees from the environmental business organizations of 'E&S, EcoPlant, Energy' and all employees from 'Geocentric, On, Forestry' gather. The Green Campus is one of SK's unique management methodologies called 'shared infrastructure.' It is designed so that affiliates share physical spaces (buildings) as well as tangible and intangible assets such as knowledge and information to generate business synergy. The campus comprises about 1,200 members who are scheduled to move in sequentially by the 3rd of next month. An SK official said, "We created the Green Campus to maximize the group's eco-friendly business capabilities for the early achievement of 'net zero (carbon neutrality).'" He added, "We expect this to give a significant boost to eco-friendly business investments and new business development." Previously, SK announced plans to invest 247 trillion KRW in future growth industries and 67 trillion KRW in eco-friendly industries by 2026.

The affiliates relocating to the Green Campus are the group's core eco-friendly business subsidiaries. SK E&S operates in renewable energy, hydrogen, and energy solutions; SK EcoPlant focuses on environment and new renewable energy; SK Energy is building eco-friendly energy solutions and mobility platforms; SK Geocentric specializes in plastic recycling and eco-friendly plastic materials; SK On develops and produces eco-friendly electric vehicle batteries and energy storage systems (ESS); and SK Forestry manages forest carbon offset projects.

The campus slogan is 'Green Together.' SK believes that if interactions among affiliate members are maximized as the slogan suggests, it will reduce trial and error in business development and increase the potential for discovering new business opportunities. For example, a business model where SK EcoPlant supplies collected waste plastics to SK Geocentric's plastic recycling plant is one of many possible 'collaboration opportunities.' To support this, the campus plans to operate various programs that facilitate communication and collaboration. They intend to hold 'Sharing Days' to enhance mutual understanding of businesses and enable benchmarking among affiliates. Courses and study groups will also be supported to help members develop their skills independently. Collaborative projects discovered through this process will be commercialized through a 'Synergy Council' within the campus.

The campus facilities will be operated under the principles of 'sharing' and 'autonomy' to maximize management synergy. To encourage active interaction among members, all spaces except for security-essential areas will be shared by all tenant companies. To foster a horizontal communication culture, fixed offices for executives have been eliminated. Additionally, a metaverse has been implemented to facilitate business idea proposals and participatory study groups.

Cho Dae-sik, Chairman of the SK SUPEX Council, conveyed in a congratulatory video uploaded to the metaverse, "I hope this campus becomes a place where anyone, regardless of organization or seniority, can lead new projects and work with those they want." The campus has installed facilities such as automatic recycling collection at Jongno Tower to encourage members to practice eco-friendly habits in daily life. In the mid to long term, the campus plans to evolve into an eco-friendly building by utilizing affiliate business items such as fuel cells and electric vehicle fast-charging facilities.

Meanwhile, SK announced in January that it plans to establish the 'SK Green Techno Campus' (tentative name) in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, by 2027, gathering the group's eco-friendly R&D personnel and capabilities. Kim Jun, Chairman of the Environmental Business Committee of the SK SUPEX Council and Vice Chairman of SK Innovation, who oversees the Green Campus project, said, "We expect the Green Campus to become a symbol of SK Group's eco-friendly business and, furthermore, a mecca for eco-friendly business in Korea."

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