Koramco Achieves Highest Rating in World's Most Prestigious ESG Evaluation

GRESB, Industry-Leading ESG Assessment Organization
Achieves 5-Star Rating

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] Coramco Asset Trust was recognized for its ESG management achievements by receiving the highest rating, '5-Star', in the world's most prestigious ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) assessment, 'GRESB 2022', on the 4th.

GRESB (Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark) is the world's most authoritative ESG evaluation that comprehensively assesses the environmental and social impacts, as well as stakeholder relationships, of real estate physical assets and their managers. Based in the Netherlands, it has rapidly expanded its evaluation scope beyond Europe and North America to Asia and Oceania recently.

Last year, ESG evaluations were conducted on 1,520 real estate-related companies worldwide and over 117,000 real estate assets. The scale of this year's evaluation is reported to have increased by more than 10% compared to the previous year.

Coramco is the leading private real estate finance company in Korea, managing approximately KRW 28 trillion in assets through domestic and international physical real estate assets and equity investments related to real estate. Since last year, to keep pace with the global ESG trend, it has established an ESG committee directly under the board of directors and created an ESG strategy team, systematizing the previously scattered ESG capabilities within the organization. In particular, it is focusing on enhancing the effectiveness of ESG management by recruiting external climate change experts to improve the eco-friendliness and energy efficiency of asset management.

GRESB evaluation ratings are divided into five levels from ‘1-Star’ to ‘5-Star’, and it is known that less than 20% of asset managers worldwide receive the ‘5-Star’ rating.

The main asset evaluated this time, ‘Majesta City Tower 2’, is the first office building in Seoul certified with the ‘LEED CS Platinum’ (the highest eco-friendly rating ‘Platinum’) by the U.S. Green Building Council. This building has introduced approximately 100 kW capacity solar power facilities, an automatic energy management system, and geothermal heat pumps, generating about 656 MWh of energy annually on its own, significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, it has installed a recycled water system to conserve water resources and maximizes resource utilization through waste recycling, thereby realizing a circular economy.

Coramco plans to significantly expand the scope and range of evaluation based on this assessment. To this end, it is conducting a full survey of energy usage, renewable energy generation status, water resources, and waste recycling status for all physical real estate assets under management to build an energy database. This will be used as a strategic indicator for ESG evaluation by asset in the future.

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