BDO Sunghyun in Korea, an independent member of BDO International Limited, a global network of public accounting, tax, and advisory firms, announced a new strategic partnership with ESG Book, a leader in sustainability data and technology. BDO International Limited offers professional services in 164 countries.
Under the cooperation, clients of BDO Sunghyun will have access to ESG Book's complete data solutions, which include analytical tools, company-level and portfolio-level scores, ESG and climate data, and cover over 50,000 corporates.
Dr Daniel Klier, CEO of ESG Book, said: "Investors and companies are today demanding better, technology-enabled solutions in order to meet increasingly complex ESG requirements, and direct capital towards more sustainable and higher-impact assets. We are delighted to announce ESG Book's new strategic partnership with BDO Sunghyun, which will open up new joint opportunities to support clients in Korea with next generation ESG data and technology for better decision making."
Kil-bae Yoon, Managing Partner at BDO Sunghyun, said: "The importance of disclosing and evaluating ESG data under global standards is clear. However, with a multitude of international frameworks, and different criteria across rating agencies, it can be difficult to obtain sufficiently transparent and comparable ESG data for market stakeholders. In this respect, the disclosure and evaluation capabilities of ESG Book will be a game changer, and this strategic partnership between BDO Sunghyun and ESG Book will help Korean companies carry out sustainable management on an international level."
Several of the biggest investors, financial institutions, and corporations in the world use ESG Book's extensive variety of sustainability-related data, rating, and technological offerings. Companies may own their own data and disclose directly to stakeholders in real-time against several frameworks thanks to its SaaS data management and disclosure platform. The largest disclosure database in the world is provided by ESG Book, which has over 135,000 company sustainability disclosures available on the platform.
BDO Sunghyun has three other offices in Busan, Changwon, and Daegu in addition to its headquarters in Seoul. BDO Sunghyun is extending its service offerings by making significant investments in service quality and new business areas using its knowledge and close to 300 professionals. The ESG Center, founded by BDO Sunghyun in 2021 and made up of 20 internal and foreign professionals, now offers advising and assurance services that adhere to global ESG evaluation standards.
Leading Korean companies are adopting ESG principles more frequently to satisfy expanding regulatory and market needs. Ninety percent of businesses maintain a dedicated ESG division, and ninety four percent include ESG considerations in their annual business planning, according to a 2022 poll of Korea's top 100 organisations.