State-run power agency strengthens CSR policy

Employees of the Korea Electric Power Corporation deliver briquettes to needy families in an alley in Seoul as part of the firm’s voluntary community assistance activities in this file photo. / Courtesy of KEPCO

By Jung Sung-ki

The state-funded Korean Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) has pledged to further strengthen its corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities in an effort to play a pivotal role in helping those destitute and neglected as a responsible public company in the country.

After establishing a volunteering corps in 2004, the company has expanded its CSR programs with a focus on helping socially isolated and low income earners, KEPCO officials said.

Currently, the KEPCO Volunteering Corps has 19,600 members with 272 local branches.

“The number of the weak and vulnerable has soared since the financial crisis for the past years, and our society need to pay more attention to children and young people in need,” a KEPCO spokesman said. “The KEPCO Volunteer Corps will strengthen its support for those youngsters in need further, as they are the ones to lead our country in the future.”

Since 2006, the company has provided scholarships and school equipment to several vocational high schools around the nation. It also offered scholarships to 224 students talented in electric engineering since 2005.

KEPCO established sisterhood relationships with 283 children’s welfare centers across the nation to provide free meals, textbooks, school materials, as well as build facilities for the centers.

“Besides providing materials and scholarships, the KEPCO Volunteering Corps offer a one to one mentoring service to children and students,” the spokesman said.

In the second half of last year, the company provided 340 million won to local children’s welfare centers. This year the firm has provided nearly 700 million won with a focus on educational programs on reading, electric safety, IT and others, he said.

Other CSR programs by KEPCO include a campaign to locate missing children, blood donations, electricity bill discounts, volunteer works at agricultural villages and cultural concerts.

“CSR activities are now a must for a corporation’s survival,” a KEPCO executive official said. “Through ‘sharing management,’ KEPCO will try to become a top company in Korea.”

KEPCO is carrying out a campaign to donate corneas to help the blind from the low-income bracket, which can’t afford medical treatment.

About 8,100 employees of KEPCO, or 42 percent, have participated in the campaign.

Under the campaign called “Eye Love,” the company helped about 50 people, including 10 from foreign nations, with eye disease to get vision treatment.

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