[‘그린스완’시대, 숲이 경쟁력이다] Part 3 〈3〉 KB Kookmin Bank ‘Saving the Forest’
Changgyeonggung Palace – Jongmyo Forest Road, Disconnected for 90 Years… 100 Million Won Raised Through ESG Participation of Employees
Citizen volunteers start planting trees
3ha of ‘sea forest’ created in Namhae-Sacheon, etc… Preventing red tide and providing fish habitat
The palace wall road on Yulgok-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul, which I visited on the 30th of last month. It was so peaceful that I couldn’t believe that cars were constantly passing through the tunnel right below. The highest temperature during the day was 33 degrees, but the occasional breeze cooled the heat.
The green space connecting Changgyeonggung Palace and Jongmyo Shrine was only opened to the public two years ago, so it was not a dense forest, but Korean native tree species such as pine trees and azaleas were growing in the sunlight. Citizen Hyeong Yong-seon (67), who visits the area frequently, said, “It is even more beautiful in the spring when flowers bloom,” and “It is truly precious that there is a path like this in downtown Seoul.”
● A palace forest in the city center created by employees and citizens
Jongmyo Shrine and Changgyeonggung Palace, where the spirit tablets of the kings and queens of Joseon were enshrined and ancestral rites were performed, were originally connected by a forest with a wall between them. However, in 1932, during the Japanese colonial period, when Japan opened the Jongmyo Passageway (currently Yulgok-ro), the two spaces were separated and a cloud bridge was built between them. Changgyeonggung Palace and Jongmyo, which had been separated, were reconnected in 2022 through Seoul City’s historical restoration project. Seoul City buried Yulgok-ro underground, reconnected the green belt above it, and also restored the palace walls.
However, the forest path that had been cut off for 90 years was somewhat sparse. In order to restore the original forest with historical significance, KB Kookmin Bank has decided to create the ‘KB Green Wave Palace Forest’ in Changgyeonggung Palace, which is adjacent to the palace wall road, in 2023. KB Kookmin Bank employees also participated. Last year alone, 10,000 employees participated in ESG (environment, society, governance) activities through the ‘KB Green Wave Mileage’ system and raised 100 million won in donations. ‘KB Green Wave Mileage’, which was implemented in 2022, is a system in which employees’ environmental and social activities are converted into mileage, and the bank accumulates 2 won per mileage as a donation and invests it in eco-friendly social contribution projects. If you do not own a zero-emission vehicle or do not issue a paper passbook, you can receive mileage by using public transportation or doing everyday activities such as walking. Based on the funds collected in this way, 80 citizens participated in the palace forest maintenance volunteer activity last year and planted 187 trees. KB Kookmin Bank’s palace forest creation project will continue until 2025.
● Creating a 3ha ‘sea forest’ over 6 years
KB Kookmin Bank is also creating a forest in the ocean. The goal of the ‘KB Ocean Forest Project’ is to create a 3ha (hectare) ‘seagrass’ forest over a period of 6 years from 2022 to 2027.
Seaweed is an angiosperm that is distributed in the ocean and adapted to seawater, and is one of the three major blue carbons (carbon sinks in marine ecosystems) recognized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Seaweed forests absorb carbon dioxide through photosynthesis and store carbon for a long time. It is estimated that the speed of carbon absorption of seaweed forests is 50 times faster than that of the Amazon jungle, and that the storage capacity is also 5 times greater. Seaweed forests not only provide spawning grounds and habitats for marine life, but also purify the ocean environment and prevent red tides.
In order to restore the kelp forests, whose habitat area has been reduced due to climate change and other reasons, KB Kookmin Bank is working hard to carry out projects for at least two years in each kelp forest creation area. In the first year of creation, adult kelp trees are collected from nearby coastal areas and transplanted to the project site, and in the second year, kelp seeds are sown. In addition, monitoring is conducted quarterly, and if the survival rate is less than 30%, re-transplantation is carried out.
As a result of these efforts, the first 1ha sea forest was created in the waters near Unpo Village, Changseon-myeon, Namhae-gun, Gyeongsangnam-do from July 2022 to December of last year. The transplanted zalpi forest in December 2022 was monitored in October of last year and showed successful transplant results in just one year, with a growth density of 5.3 times and a survival rate of 533%.
The second sea forest creation site was decided to be Sacheon-si, Gyeongnam, and work began in May of this year to investigate suitable sites for sea squirt creation and secure adult sea squirts. The plan is to transplant 7,200 adult sea squirts to this site by the end of the year. KB Kookmin Bank expects that the sea forest project will have an effect similar to planting about 100,000 30-year-old pine trees.
● “Forests have many economic benefits”
KB Kookmin Bank believes that creating forests will ultimately have a positive impact on the bank’s profits. If biodiversity decreases due to climate change, corporate profits will eventually decrease in the long term, and financial companies’ risks will increase due to government regulations and changes in investor awareness.
In fact, according to the ‘2023 Banking Sector Sustainable Finance Assessment’ conducted by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in which the environmental and social integration performance of 49 banks in eight Asian countries was analyzed, 83% of the banks evaluated were aware of social and economic risks related to environmental destruction. Five domestic banks, including KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, Woori, and IBK Industrial Bank, were included in the assessment.
A KB Kookmin Bank official said, “Forest creation is the most effective way to promote biodiversity,” and added, “We will continue to actively discover issues that can have a positive impact on society as a whole and expand our forest-related businesses.”
2024-09-04 13:45:28