SK Innovation launches campaign to protect mangroves

SK Innovation launched an online campaign where participants can donate mangrove seedlings to help protect the environment. / Courtesy of SK Innovation

By Yoon Ja-young

SK Innovation has launched a campaign for donations of mangrove seedlings to protect the environment.

The country's leading energy and petrochemical firm said Tuesday it has launched the “Give Earth its Energy Back” campaign.

The campaign, which runs until the end of this month, aims at promoting why humanity should protect the environment. Around 3,000 people have participated so far as of July 17, donating over 5,000 trees. The participants spin a roulette wheel to determine how many trees they will donate. It aims at planting 10,000 mangroves through the donation campaign.

A mangrove forest absorbs five times more carbon dioxide compared with a rainforest of the same area. As seashores of Southeast Asia are its main habitat, the mangrove forests are sometimes called “the lungs of Asia” that can stop global warming. They also protect the ecosystem and protect against tsunamis and other natural disasters. Due to reckless development projects during the past few decades, however, about 70 percent of the mangrove forests have been damaged and voices are getting louder that something should be done.

SK Innovation's mangrove restoration project is funded by company executives and employees who have been donating 1 percent of their salaries. They have set up the “happiness sharing fund” to contribute to 12 projects, such as global environmental protection, job creation through social enterprises, supporting people with disabilities and children fighting cancer, and helping children of low-income households achieve their dreams.

The online campaign to donate mangroves is in line with SK Innovation's mangrove restoration project around Tra Vinh in Vietnam. Following signing of an agreement with Vietnamese central and local governments as well as the United Nations Environment Program in May, the company executives and employees visited Tra Vinh to plant 1,000 mangrove seedlings with locals.

SK Innovation has special ties with Vietnam. On top of the Block 15-1 where 68,700 barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) are produced daily, the company is participating in two oil exploration projects in the country. Its subsidiary SK Energy also signed an agreement to establish a joint venture with Saigon New Port, Vietnam's top logistics company, to begin a service area business for truck drivers.

“Our happiness sharing fund is especially meaningful as the employees voluntarily participated in the donation for diverse social contribution projects. We will expand opportunities where consumers can also join with us to create social values,” a spokesperson for SK Innovation said.