Hello, Mr. Park. Could you introduce yourself?

Hello. I'm Park Sang-chan, a manager working in the ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Management Innovation Team in the Finance & Planning Division of HD Hyundai Construction Equipment, and this is my third year with the company.
I graduated from the Department of Business Administration in February 2022, but I actually joined the Business Planning Team earlier in January 2022. After a year in the Business Planning Team, I transferred to the ESG Management Innovation Team within the same division in January 2023, so it's been a year.

What does the ESG Management Innovation team do?

The ESG Management Innovation Team is responsible for building an ESG management foundation for the company and establishing ESG strategies to promote the sustainable development of the company. Recently, due to global warming and the need to revitalize local economies, the demand for ESG management from various stakeholders, including international organizations, has grown, and as a result, the ESG Management Innovation Team, which promotes ESG management, has been playing an increasingly important role.
In the ESG Management Innovation Team, I am in charge of joining global initiatives and checking the implementation thereof, responding to external ESG assessments, operating a company-wide ESG council, seeking external ESG awards, and publishing the Sustainability Management Report.
As a result of the efforts of the ESG Management Innovation Team, HD Hyundai Construction Equipment has won several awards, including the Grand Prize for ESG Management at the Management Grand Awards in 2022 and the Presidential Award at the 30th Corporate Innovation Awards in 2023.

What do you love about the ESG Management Innovation Team?

What I love about my job is that I have access to almost everything that is being done throughout the company and can exercise some control over it.
ESG does not just concern just one aspect of the company, but is intricately linked to every aspect. So I can communicate with various departments and play a role in identifying and managing improvements as such needs arise in terms of ESG opportunities and risks.

What skills are essential for your job?

There are mainly three must-have skills: communication, trend spotting, and foreign language skills.

I think communication skills are the most essential part of the job because almost every team in the company has to work together with other teams. This is especially true in the case of ESG management, as it requires communication and collaboration with various teams. It is crucial for each team to be able to communicate with other teams to ensure adequate coordination so as to address any deficiencies in the ESG aspects of their work and translate it into ESG performance. In fact, the ESG Management Innovation Team communicates with all divisions of the company, including Human Resources, Production, Purchasing, Sales, and Quality, when compiling data for the ESG Management Committee, which meets every quarter. For this, it is necessary to identify the ESG tasks associated with each division and communicate with all divisions of the company regarding how to implement them, how well they are being implemented, and whether there are any areas that need to be improved. As such, flexible communication is essential to ensure adequate coordination with different divisions of the company, which are busy with their respective work.

It's also important to be able to catch trends before anyone else because ESG, which has emerged in recent years, has become a new way of evaluating a company's performance by examining the extent to which it fulfills its responsibilities the environment and society and how ethical its governance is, instead of just judging the company by how much money it makes. As such, we need to be able to see the latest changes and trends in the world.
For example, it is very helpful to know why RE100 (100% Renewable Electricity) has been introduced and how the recent environmental trends related to RE100 are changing. More recently, CF100 (100% Carbon-Free Energy), which includes nuclear power plants and hydrogen fuel cells, is garnering attention, so it is important to be aware of these changing trends so that we can respond quickly.

Lastly, it's foreign language skills. When dealing with foreign ESG evaluation organizations such as the Customer Data Platform (CDP) and Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI), all documents and correspondence will be in English, so knowing English will make things a lot easier. In particular, you need to be able to read documents in English and write responses in English, so you need to have good reading and writing skills. I remember opening up the MSCI ESG Ratings report in the past and feeling overwhelmed because it was a 63-page report and it was all in English. That was when I realized, "I'll need to improve my English skills."

How have you changed while doing your job?

I've always cared about protecting the environment, even in the past, but since joining the ESG Management Innovation Team, I think I care a lot more about protecting the environment than before.
Currently, ecosystems are undergoing extreme changes and destruction due to climate change and global warming, so it is absolutely necessary for every individual, company, and organization to make an effort to protect the environment. I've felt this down to my very core while doing ESG-related work and I've grown more interested in environmental issues.

What are the employment outlook for your job?

Currently, the importance of fulfilling corporate social responsibility and protecting the environment is drawing more and more attention.
As a result, companies are striving to create social value and protect the environment and are pursuing sustainable ESG management.
In particular, ESG information has been subject to voluntary disclosure in financial reports until now, but the United States and European Union are planning to make the disclosure of ESG information mandatory, and so is Korea. I think the job prospects for ESG-related roles will grow amid this trend.

What advice would you give to recent college graduates?

This is probably the most difficult time of your life, being in the job market and facing fierce competition after years of studying and acquiring different job skills and qualifications while in college. When I was a recent college graduate, I personally submitted more than 30 job applications before finally getting a job.
Your self-esteem may plummet after experiencing a lot of rejections, but remember that one day you will find a place that truly appreciates your hard work, and I hope that place will be HD Hyundai. The food at our company cafeteria tastes absolutely amazing, and I hope you have the opportunity to eat with us.
I'll be cheering you on!