Posco, South Korea’s leading steelmaker, has been recognized for its environmental activities in a recent journal published by the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship, the company said Tuesday.

“Posco’s efforts to clean and recover our planet’s oceans, as well as cooperate with steel industry on blue carbon, places it at the forefront in the battle against climate change,” the journal said.

The journal illustrated Posco’s Clean Ocean Volunteer Group. First launched in 2009, the group of scuba diving volunteers in South Korea has collected 1,710 tons of marine waste through 560 activities over the past decade.

In 2020, the company’s employees volunteered in a cleanup activity at Baeal Island in Gwangyang, South Jeolla Province, and released 100,000 black sea bream into the ocean as well.

The journal also made note of the Triton Reef program, through which the company built reefs using steel slag for sea forestation in areas experiencing coral bleaching, caused by warmer water temperatures.

Posco, as of 2019, had deployed 6,559 units of Triton Reef at more than 30 areas here to help fishery production and the development of blue carbon -- a term that refers to carbon absorption by marine ecosystems.

Posco’s other efforts to reduce the use of plastics in their daily operations were held in high regard by the journal.

By Shim Woo-hyun (ws@heraldcorp.com)