Only about half of large companies in South Korea operated an environmental, social and governance committee last year, reflecting their commitment to sustainable growth, a report showed Tuesday.
According to the report by corporate research firm Leaders Index, 194 companies, or 53.7 percent, of 361 companies with available data from the country's top 500 firms by sales had an ESG committee or a sustainability committee within their organization last year.
The ratio represents a slight increase from the previous year's 48.5 percent, but the pace of annual growth has slowed in recent years, the report added.
ESG management refers to a managerial approach that expands a company's role beyond profit-making to social and environmental responsibilities, with the ESG committee playing a key role.
The report found that the corporate ESG committees held a combined 595 meetings across the 194 companies last year, averaging 3.8 meetings per committee.
A total of 1,361 agenda items were discussed in ESG committee meetings, with an average of 2.3 items addressed per meeting.
Only 79 cases, or 16.3 percent, of 486 pending matters, were related to environmental, social and governance issues, while the remaining cases focused on corporate strategies and other topics.
By sector, 100 percent of the banking and telecommunications industries operated ESG committees last year.
Ninety percent of public corporations had ESG committees, followed by the shipbuilding, machinery and equipment sector with 76.2 percent, and the trading and consumer goods sector at 66.7 percent.
However, the steel and pharmaceutical industries recorded lower adoption rates at 21.4 percent and 25 percent, respectively. (Yonhap)
