By Kang Seung-woo
S-Oil has gained recognition not just for high-quality oil but for its corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities as well, noticeable in its Sunshine Sharing Campaign on full display.
The company’s charity program, which aims at making our society better through sharing, has three themes: heroes, communities and environment.
In order to recognize unsung heroes in society, S-Oil, headed by CEO Ahmed Subaey, has implemented the Hero Firefighters Support Program to boost the morale of firefighters and help the families of fallen or injured firefighters since 2006. Under the program, the refiner has presented consolation money and school expenses to the families of fallen or injured firefighters and has actively carried out other diverse CSR activities, thereby contributing to strengthening the social safety net.
In addition, S-Oil has selected civilians who have been injured or given their lives to help others as Heroic Civilians of the Year and award them at the end of each year since 2008.
S-Oil, founded in 1976, is busy contributing to local communities to pursue co-development.
The company has held a charity event that makes songpyeon, half moon-shaped rice cakes, during Chuseok for elderly people living alone and other low-income households.
“Through this event, I could not only experience warm sharing between Korean people but I could also deeply feel Korean’s beautiful warm hearts, called ‘jeong,’” said the CEO, who has participated in the campaign every year since taking charge in 2008.
Employees of its Ulsan refinery are also exemplary having donated rice for needy people in the region since 2001.
Throughout this time, they have provided about 77,000 20-kilogram sacks of rice worth 5.02 billion won ($4.33 million) to the city.
As for the environment, S-Oil is making efforts to protect natural treasures.
In this manner, the oil refiner signed a natural monuments protection agreement with the Cultural Heritage Administration in May 2008 for the safeguarding of natural treasures. Since then, it has selected the otter (Natural Treasure No. 330), the crane (Natural Treasure No. 202), and the Hemibarbus mylodon (Natural Treasure No. 259) as the natural monuments to protect.
In consideration of future generations, it also launched a protection corps consisting of college students to support protection activities and related research.
Meanwhile, S-Oil has joined the Culture and Arts-sharing Campaign. Through the initiative, the company offers its Mapo building as a culture-sharing space where young artists and local communities exhibit artworks or hold performances.
In recognition of the firm’s efforts for sharing campaign, S-Oil has been admitted to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) for the second straight year.
The DJSI assess the overall financial, economic, environmental, and social criteria of the world’s top 2,500 companies in terms of market capitalization and selects only top 10 companies in terms of sustainable management to compile the index.