In autumn 2009, SolAbility conducted a corporate sustainability survey amongst professionals in Korean corporations. The results of the survey and evidence form SolAbility’s ESG research work have now been published in a report. The full report is available as PDF download here.

Highlights of the survey include:

• 187 respondents form a variety of business backgrounds
• More than 55% of respondents say their organization has implemented sustainability activities
• Initial sustainability activities were focused on “social responsibility” activities (ethical management, social activities), rather than strategic considerations
• However, the view on sustainability has been changing significantly and rapidly over the last 2 years.
• 65% of respondents indicate that sustainability has become more important at their respective company since the outbreak of the global financial & economic crisis
• 97.8% of respondents expect that their company will have fully implemented sustainability management by 2014

ESG Research highlights

• Sustainable companies significantly outperform the less sustainable companies in terms of financial performance, both long- and short term: A portfolio of the 0 most sustainable Korean companies has outperformed the stock index (KOSPI) by more than 200% since 2002, 18% in 2009
• Increase in sustainability activities amongst Korean corporations have been observed over recent years
• The push for integrating sustainability has gained significant monumentum with the recent financial and economic crisis

SolAbility is a Korean-Swiss joint-venture based in Korea, providing ESG research to institutional clients and sustainability services to corporate clients www.solability.com [email protected] Tel. +82 31 811 3578