S-Oil expands CSR activities

S-Oil expands CSR activities S-Oil has stepped up its corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts for local communities. Its Sunshine Sharing CSR program focuses on providing services for underprivileged people, firefighters and environmental groups. The country's third-largest oil refinery launched the program in 2007 to initially help poor households. Since then, the firm's employees have delivered food to such households at the end of the year and during Korea's traditional holidays including Chuseok, Korea's Thanksgiving Day and one of the country's biggest family holidays. During last year's Chuseok on Sept. 12, 2013, S-Oil CEO Nasser Al-Mahasher of Saudi Arabia and 100 company executives, as well as employees distributed "songpyeon," a seasonal rice cake, to some 800 low-income households in Mapo-gu, Seoul. The company said that the songpyeon was made by the employees themselves. Al-Mahasher and the executives also delivered gift packages to some 600 homeless people, poor senior citizens and disabled people on Jan. 29 this year, two days before Lunar New Year's Day. They also served "tteokguk," a rice cake soup that Koreans traditionally eat during Lunar New Year's Day, to these groups. As part of its support for heroes in local communities, the oil refinery has been running a variety of firefighter support programs since 2006, in cooperation with the National Emergency Management Agency. The company also runs a financial support program for injured firefighters and the families of deceased firefighters and provides scholarships for children of fallen firefighters annually. At the end of each year, the company awards outstanding firefighters. It also runs a "healing" program for firefighter couples to give them a chance to rest, according to S-Oil. On Christmas Eve last year, it named seven firefighters "Heroes of the Year" and awarded each of them up to 20 million won ($18,600). Meanwhile, to protect the environment, S-Oil has been working with the Korea Cultural Heritage Foundation since 2008. Through this partnership, the companies protect animals that are on the verge of extinction, including otters, cranes and long-horned beetles. These animals' habitats are found in specific regions in the country, and preserving their homes is crucial, the company said. S-Oil also supports volunteers to help protect the animals and holds seminars for environmental groups. (The Korea Times, Feb. 26th, 2014)