LG Corp., the holding firm of South Korea’s No. 4 conglomerate LG Group, has made the list of the top 20 socially valuable companies in the world, industry sources said Tuesday.
LG earned 79 points out of the full 100 in the societal return on investment survey by U.S. pollster Harris Poll and marketing consultant Finn Partners, tying for 13th place.
LG is the sole South Korean and Asian company that has been included on the list. It has ranked second among non-U.S.-based companies after German supermarket chain ALDI.
SROI measures a company’s environmental and social value relative to resources invested. It is derived from citizens’ estimation of the firm’s ethical leadership, civic awareness and values. The survey was taken on 25,800 Americans aged 18 and older.
U.S. supermarket chain Wegmans Food Markets Inc. claimed the top spot with 85 points, followed by outdoor sports brand Patagonia with 83 points, and the United Parcel Service and ALDI with 82 points each.
An industry source said LG probably made the top 20 list thanks to its transparent governance structure and its efforts to practice social responsibility.
In March, LG ranked 25th on the 2018 Harris Poll Reputation Quotient, a corporate survey for the 100 representative companies in the U.S., beating Samsung Electronics Co. and Apple. Samsung placed 35th, while South Korea’s top automaker Hyundai Motor Co. ranked 56th. (Yonhap)