Samsung SDI beefs up CSR acts

A group of children take part in the “Green Planet Environment School,” a corporate social responsibility program designed by Samsung SDI, last year in this file photo. / Courtesy of Samsung SDI

By Choi Kyong-ae

Samsung SDI, the battery making affiliate of Samsung Group, is stepping up its corporate social responsibility (CSR) drive to help bolster its corporate image.

The maker of rechargeable batteries used in mobile phones and electric vehicles spent 5.29 billion won (about $5 million) in CSR activities in 2012, sharply up from 475 million won in 2008, a Samsung SDI spokesman said by telephone.

“We have been allocating an increasing amount of budget for CSR programs in recent years, putting greater focus on environmental protection and free eye surgery,” the spokesman said.

In a major CSR program, Samsung SDI partnered with the Korea Environmental Preservation Association and the Korea Food for the Hungry International to help children learn the importance of environmental protection, the company said in a statement.

For example, “Samsung SDI employees volunteered to become temporary teachers in making a solar-powered vehicle and a picture frame using recycled products together with children,” said the statement.

The program dubbed “Green Planet Environment School” started in 2012. In August, the company invited some 300 children from the South Chungcheong Province, Gyeonggi Province and South Gyeongsang Province to the program.

In another CSR activity, the Samsung affiliate joined hands with Siloam Eye Hospital in 1995 to help poor people who are visually challenged get eye surgery or proper treatment.

Samsung SDI donated a 46-seat limousine bus in 1996 which was later remodeled into a mobile clinic fully mated with cutting-edge equipment such as a microscope needed for cataract operations and other eye surgeries.

The mobile eye clinic was replaced with a new limousine bus in 2003 with the help of financial support from Samsung, which operates the Samsung Medical Center in Seoul.

For the 18 years from 1996, a total of 190,000 people with ocular diseases benefited from eye surgery and ensuing treatment for free. Samsung provided 4.9 billion won in financial support to the hospital during the 18 years.

Under a program titled “Moving Together,” Samsung SDI employees at provincial operations in Ulsan and Cheonan have helped some 200 senior citizens and the low-income families since 2005 move to a new homes.

“Communicating with the community and making donations for the underprivileged is a must for a company to become a global player and a world-class, eco-friendly energy solution provider,” Samsung SDI President & CEO Park Sang-jin said in a statement.

Samsung SDI’s net profit plunged 91 percent to 130.6 billion won in 2013 from 1.47 trillion won a year earlier. Lower demand and a strong won, which cut its dollar-denominated income when converted into the local currency, hit the bottom line.