Binggrae's sense of social responsibility, revealed through active social-contribution activities
Pursuing sustainable growth of Binggrae, its employees, and its partner companies by building a Shared-Growth TF Team
The social responsibility of "Binggrae"—familiar to us as an ice-cream company—is revealed through active social-contribution activities. Over the past few years Binggrae has built up remarkable achievements in the ESG field: an A+ grade in the social category of the 2023 Korea ESG Research Institute evaluation, an "A" grade for four consecutive years since 2019 in the KCGS ESG evaluation, and the top grade of AA for three consecutive years in the Sustinvest ESG evaluation.
Binggrae's Sustainable Management 1. Responsibility for the Next Generation
To strengthen its sustainable-management framework, Binggrae has, since 2018, reorganized its existing capabilities and systems and established a mid- to long-term strategy. Accordingly, each year through its board of directors it reviews and resolves on non-financial risks, the setting of the next year's ESG management goals, and its sustainable-management strategy, and it has built an organizational structure consisting of an ESG officer reporting directly to the CEO, dedicated staff for each ESG field, and cooperating departments. In addition, to identify sustainable-management issues related to its business and reflect them in management strategy, it conducts a double-materiality assessment,* setting goals and performance according to the priority of the issues surrounding the company and reporting them in its sustainability report.
*Double-materiality assessment: an assessment that adds, to the materiality assessment that selects key issues based on the impact of sustainability issues such as environmental or social problems on corporate value, further consideration of the impact the company has on the environment and society.
[Binggrae products developed with eco-friendly packaging ©2023 Binggrae Sustainability Report]
Binggrae also practices eco-friendly management. Based on an environmental management system (ISO 14001), it established a sustainable supply-chain operating strategy, pursued Life Cycle Analysis of its products, and sought to minimize environmental impact. It also developed eco-friendly product packaging to reduce carbon emissions, and it is active in developing packaging optimized for resource circulation after incineration or landfill. These efforts led to reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions. The greenhouse-gas emissions Binggrae reduced in 2022 through raw-material recycling, material improvement, and weight reduction were about 6,588 tCO₂eq, equivalent to the effect of planting about 53,000 pine trees.* *Assessment basis: Korea Forest Service carbon-tree calculator.
[Binggrae's eco-friendly campaign ©2023 Binggrae Sustainability Report]
Each year it runs eco-friendly campaigns with diverse and fun concepts alongside consumers, drawing active participation. In particular, the "Danji Washing Machine" produced through the 2020 Banana-Flavored Milk campaign "Save the Earth, Banana" showed consumers how to sort and dispose of waste in a fun and intuitive way. It not only won a great response but also went on to receive awards at prestigious domestic and international marketing award ceremonies such as the "Korea Advertising Awards," the "& Awards," and the "Effie Awards."
Binggrae's Sustainable Management 2. Leading Shared Value
Binggrae is accelerating its creation of social value to put its management philosophy into practice. As a food manufacturer that procures raw and subsidiary materials from a variety of suppliers, it works hard on sustainable supply-chain management to stabilize costs and prices. To grow together with partner companies and farms, it has set up a shared-growth fund of about 10 billion won with IBK Industrial Bank of Korea to support partners struggling with financing, and it has built a channel for ongoing communication with partner companies through its "Happy Together with Partners!" program. During the COVID-19 period, it supported its partners and partner companies with Binggrae products, seeking to overcome the difficult times together, and through its Shared-Growth TF Team within the Compliance Management Team reporting directly to the CEO, it seeks improvement measures to resolve partners' suggestions and grievances.
[2023 scholarship award ceremony for descendants of independence patriots ©Binggrae]
Beyond this, Binggrae is also carrying out various social-contribution activities for coexistence with local communities. Since 2013 it has sponsored the Korean Red Cross by donating Binggrae products or a portion of sales proceeds. In 2022 it also donated 300 million won worth of rice and goods to disaster-vulnerable groups, including people displaced by the wildfires in the Gyeongbuk and Gangwon regions. Furthermore, it is actively carrying out activities to carry on our culture and spirit. As a company with a pure Korean name, it has been distributing the Binggrae Hangul font since 2016, and it established the Binggrae Public Interest Foundation to run a scholarship program for descendants of independence activists and persons of national merit. In 2019 it signed an agreement with the National Police Agency to sponsor scholarships for descendants of independence patriots connected to the police, and since 2021 it has expanded the scholarship program to include the children of police officers who died in the line of duty while also increasing the scholarship amount; in 2022 it delivered 40 million won in scholarships to a total of 26 scholarship recipients, including 13 descendants of independence activists and 13 children of police officers who died in the line of duty.
Binggrae's company name embodies the "spirit of the nation's smile, Binggrae," which Dosan Ahn Chang-ho emphasized. Just as a smile that wells up in daily life without worry, sorrow, guilt, or turbidity is called "binggrae," we hope the company can fulfill its role as a contributor that promotes the health and happiness of the people through the production and development of good products.
by Editor N