Suwon Receives Grand Prize at 5th ESG Korea Awards

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Jung Jun-sung] Suwon Special City was selected as the top basic municipal government at the "5th ESG Korea Awards" and received the grand prize.

The awards ceremony, jointly hosted by Hans Economics and ESG Happy Economy Research Institute, took place on May 24th at the Diamond Hall of the FKI Tower in Yeouido, Seoul, as part of the "1.5°C HOW Forum & ESG Korea Awards."

The 1.5°C HOW Forum & ESG Korea Awards is an event where major stakeholders from public, private, and non-profit sectors gather to discuss the necessity of ESG management and award companies and local governments with excellent ESG leadership and performance as a means to address climate change and promote sustainable development.

Suwon City received an A grade among 31 cities and counties in Gyeonggi Province in the ESG Korea Research Institute's "Basic Municipal Government ESG Assessment," ranking 1st, and also recorded 1st place among 226 basic municipal governments nationwide.

The basic municipal government ESG assessment was conducted on 226 basic municipal governments nationwide from January 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023.

Assessment was conducted by dividing into 20 items each in the environment, social, and governance categories. The evaluation indicators followed △K-SDGs (National Sustainable Development Goals) △Basic Sustainable Development Law △Carbon Neutrality Basic Law △K-Taxonomy △Global Initiatives (UN SDGs, GRI, ISO26000), and considered the impact on sustainability (contemporary and social necessity) and importance for stakeholders (disclosure data and information).

ESG administration refers to local governments reflecting the values of Environment, Social responsibility, and Governance in their administration for sustainable development.

Under the vision of "Suwon renewed, citizens shining," Suwon City has achieved remarkable accomplishments in the environment, social, and governance sectors.

In the environmental sector, the city is working to complete a carbon-neutral city by enacting basic ordinances for completing a carbon-neutral city by 2050, collaborating with the Suwon Research Institute of Municipal Administration, organizing the Suwon Carbon Neutrality Citizens' Committee, and announcing a carbon-neutral vision.

The city is actively reducing greenhouse gases through introducing and expanding the "My Home Carbon Monitoring" program, operating zero-energy building certification systems, promoting full conversion to electric buses, expanding electric and hydrogen vehicle charging stations, and other infrastructure construction. It has also expanded eco-stations and smart resource centers to encourage waste separation and disposal, and last year held the "Eco-Mobility Suwon New Festa," recreating car-free villages for the first time in 10 years.

Additionally, the city has expanded urban carbon sinks through conducting education for civil servants and citizens, opening the Ilwol and Youngheung Arboretums, and creating pocket gardens (314 locations).

In the "Social Responsibility Sector," Suwon Newlight Care, the nation's first integrated care service, is a representative example. The city has created a platform supporting home care services, psychological support, accompaniment support, and temporary protection to address blind spots in welfare and established a comprehensive care system.

The city is promoting various housing stabilization projects including ShareHouse CON for residential stability of independent youth, Suwon Human Housing for multi-child households without homes (three or more children), and Newlight Youth Zone providing housing for young people. Additionally, the city is expanding its social safety net through support for single-person households, establishing job stability networks for platform workers, and expanding CCTV for urban safety.

The governance sector is interpreted as the governance field for local governments. The Suwon City Urban Policy Citizens' Planning Committee, the first to be established nationwide, citizen participatory budgeting, and the citizen jury system have achieved results in creating policies that align with citizens' common sense by enabling citizen participation in policy-making processes.

Through the mobile government participation platform Newlight TalkTalk, citizens can propose policies anytime, anywhere, and Newlight Civil Affairs Center and the Veteran Civil Servant System have become models for civil service. Mayor Lee Jae-jun of Suwon City opens "visiting field mayor offices" to directly hear residents' voices in the field. Suwon City was selected 1st among basic municipal governments and as an excellent institution in the "2023 Comprehensive Evaluation of Proactive Administration by Local Governments," becoming a model for proactive administration, and is currently striving to secure administrative and financial authority befitting the status of a special city.

In April, fellows from Seoul National University Graduate School of Environmental Studies' ESG Expert Program visited Suwon City and Gyeonggi Urban Corporation to share ESG best practices.

A city official stated, "To realize ESG values, cooperation between local governments and citizens, national support, and the establishment of local government cooperation networks are necessary," adding "We will make further efforts to become a standard for ESG administration by local governments by establishing cooperation networks with local enterprises and related institutions."