Scores of elementary students pose during an environment camp hosted by Tong Yang Life Insurance held at the company’s training center in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province in the summer of 2010. / Courtesy of Tong Yang Life

By Kim Jaep-won

A guardian angel is the trademark of Tong Yang Life Insurance, symbolizing the company’s role to protect customers from illness, accidents and death.

The company is now seeking to extend this to the environment believing an insurance company is supposed to protect the circumstances its customers live in.

Tong Yang says that environmental protection is not a big thing or difficult, but something a little bit “disturbing,” such as using mass transportation, pulling out unused plugs and recycling used paper. The company argues that simple practices can reduce emissions of carbon dioxide.

“We are running eco-friendly campaigns titled Let’s Buy Insurance for the Earth along with the environment ministry since 2010,” the firm said in a statement.

The company has also made a television commercial which introduces easy ways to protect the environment. It has run about 7,000 times on television.

The government acknowledged the insurer’s efforts by awarding it the Environment Minister’s Prize in 2010 and the Prime Minister’s Prize in 2011.

The company has also hosted an environmental education camp for elementary students since 2006. More than 10,000 students from fourth to sixth grade took part in the camp, which teaches both environmental and economic classes.

Tong Yang also collected about 100 million won last year by setting apart 1,000 won of each insurance product sold to help children.