Here is a quiz. What would be the easiest way to find out if a company is legitimate? The answer: Check their sustainability report.The Halla Group’s three Sustainability Report managers explain what the sustainability report is, and why it is important.

 

“This is Mando’s third sustainability report already!”

Q. What is a sustainability report? Why do they get published?
Companies publish sustainability reports to measure and announce their performance to pledge their responsibility to stakeholders and to achieve sustainable development. You can’t check a company’s potential for sustainable development just by looking at their financial statements. You must look at the non-financial aspects of a company like their philosophy, vision, risk management, and their capacity to create social values. Today, there is increasing demand for companies to disclose their sustainability records, and for these companies, publishing a sustainability report is a good way to prove their transparency and stability. The report acts as the basis for investors to make investment decisions and provide grounds for customers to decide on whether to form a partnership with the company.

Q. This is the third such report from Mando. Is there a section in the report you paid special attention to?
Yes, the part on our sustainable management system. This is the part I mulled over the most because this is where you can see how we are undertaking sustainable management. Regarding the content, we expanded the section on environment by almost double that of last year and stressed our eco-friendly technology, which sets Mando apart from the competition.

Q. Tell us your thoughts on the experience of preparing the report.
We started preparing for the 2020 report in December last year, and we went through a lot of changes until the report was finally published. We launched a Sustainable Management Division and more people saw the importance of sustainability compared to last year. This is about non-financial performance, which is something that is not easy to be quantified, but in the end, you must be able to talk in numbers. So, our task would be to set our own standards and push ahead with our sustainability management without wavering. The increased attention on sustainability brings pressure to bear (chuckles). Please keep your eyes on us so Mando can embrace sustainability management until it becomes established as our management standards.

 

“This is a Halla’s statement in that it would make a full-fledged effort to implement sustainable management.”

Q. Please introduce Halla’s first Sustainability Report.
With increased social demand on companies to expand their investment on ESG initiatives and to publish non-financial information, Halla published a sustainability report to communicate with our stakeholders in advance. In the meantime, there have been changes both big and small withing the group, such as the establishment of a sustainability committee under the BOD, the launch of an ESG organization, and the declaration of management practices that respect human rights. Another significant change is that we began announcing non-financial data in our business reports on top of financial figures and expressed our willingness to fulfil our promise of social responsibility.

Q. Is there a page in Halla’s Sustainability Report that we must read?
Yes, it’s the highlight section (pg. 30-39). The section outlines social demands for ESG management, and efforts made by Halla to secure future growth engines. As our first step to become a sustainable company, we formulated ESG management policies and reshuffled the company structure. We are collaborating with the financial and IT sectors, investing in startups, and conducting M&As to achieve the goal Beyond Construction set in the 2020 Growth Story Workshop, where we as a company, reflected on ways to bring about future growth. In future reports, I’d like to show how much Halla has grown through the collective efforts of all employees.

Q. Tell us your thoughts on the experience of preparing the report.
This is already my 13th year at Halla. I got to read through a lot of different materials and information while preparing the report and felt that there were so many things that I didn’t know about and that I should pay more attention to those such things. I anticipate that we would build a more sophisticated system for the repot through various activities conducted by Sustainable Management and Human Rights Management consultative groups centered around the newly launched ESG Office and the Group Brand Strategy Team.

 

“The report embodies the essence of corporate management.”

Q. Why should we read the sustainability report?
The report is quite useful to many people who are interested in a company, like investors, customers, and job seekers. Reading the report is a great way to enhance your understanding of a company. For an employee of the company, you can see what the other departments are doing and it also helps with your own work. For instance, you can read the mutual development activities in other divisions with their suppliers and get an idea of how you can apply that in your division. Today, there’s a boom in stock investment, and if you are investing in individual companies, the report is an absolute must-read. Reportedly, the global ESG investment volume will skyrocket from 40 quadrillion in 2020 to 140 quadrillion by 2030, indicating that there is a high possibility that companies with outstanding ESG management performance will attract more investment. So, read the sustainability report to see if the company you are keen on is doing a great job with ESG management.

Q. What is your favorite section in Halla’s sustainability report?
I’ll give you a textbook answer and say that all pages are precious and that I can’t pick a single page (chuckles). But, if I have to pick one, I’d like to say the social contribution and communication part that my team planned, in particular, the companion tree campaign we conducted this year. It was received well based on surveys that saw the participation of 840 employees early this year, and it felt rewarding to put this in the first report. How about everyone who reads this blog make use of the sustainability report as a way to boast about your division’s work to your friends and colleagues?

Q. Three listed companies of the Halla Group have issued sustainability reports all at once. What would this mean?
You can interpret this as Halla Group’s willingness to promote sustainability as a group. In fact, with the launch of a sustainability management consultative group at the group level, cooperation among areas that require a collective response strengthened areas such as environment management and human rights management, while at the same time, communication and experience sharing between affiliates became more active. I expect Halla Group’s sustainability management will quickly be on the right track. As we plan to publish the sustainability report every year having started in 2020, I hope that it will see the unfolding of a growth story as written by all Halla employees.

 

Read Mando’s Sustainability Report
https://www.mando.com/m/sustainability/sustain17.jsp

Read Halla’s Sustainability Report
https://www.halla.co.kr/html/managing/continuance.asp

Read Halla Holdings’ Sustainability Report
https://www.meister.co.kr/meister/communion/communion08.asp