Sustinbest "ESG Activities Expanding to Companies with Smaller Asset Sizes"

ESG (Environmental, Social Responsibility, and Governance) management activities, which were previously centered on large corporations, have expanded to include companies with smaller asset sizes in the second half of this year.

On the 16th, Sustainvest, a proxy advisory firm and ESG evaluation agency, announced the '2023 Second Half ESG Evaluation Results.' This evaluation was conducted on 1,270 companies, including 755 listed on the Korea Exchange, 310 listed on KOSDAQ, and 205 unlisted companies.

According to the evaluation results, the proportion of companies receiving the highest AA rating in the second half of this year by asset size was 9.2% for those with assets over 2 trillion KRW and 12.1% for those with assets under 2 trillion KRW.

Compared to the same period last year, which were 6.0% and 9.7% respectively, this represents an increase of around 3 percentage points.

Among companies with assets over 2 trillion KRW that received the AA rating are BGF Retail, DB HiTek, KCC Glass, LG Household & Health Care, Naver, SK Telecom, Shinhan Financial Group, Hyundai Department Store, and Hyundai Home Shopping, totaling nine companies.

In particular, Sustainvest reported that these AA-rated companies achieved results in the E (Environmental) area of ESG by reducing resource usage and lowering pollutant emissions.

Ryu Young-jae, CEO of Sustainvest, stated, "It has been confirmed that companies are actively disclosing environmental information and have begun managing achievements in reducing resource usage and pollutant emissions."

He also announced the launch of a 'Rating Verification Service' to allow companies to visually share and promote their ESG evaluation results, adding, "Through the ESG evaluation grade mark and rating certificate, we expect to contribute to enhancing the overall reputation of companies among a wide range of stakeholders including customers, employees, local communities, and investors."

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