SK Innovation has promoted measures to prevent global warming and create jobs for green forests and the future of the youth of Vietnam.

On April 23, SK Innovation launched the Vietnam Social Value Alliance and the MangLub, the first social enterprise of Trà Vinh Province, in the grand hall of the Trà Vinh University in the Trà Vinh Province.

Along with SK Innovation, the Vietnam Social Value Alliance is joined by 14 organizations—including government agencies like the provincial Department of Planning and Investment and the Department of Forest Protection, educational institutes like the Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, and Trà Vinh University; business entities like PetroVietnam Exploration Production Corporation (PVEP) and Saigon Newport Corporation (SNP); media organizations like the government-owned Vietnam News Agency and Yonhap News; and NGOs like the UN Environment Programme (UNEP)—bound together by a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed last November.

01 | Launch of the Vietnam Social Value Alliance for the recovery of mangrove forests

The day of the launch saw the participation of SK Innovation, other organizations in the Vietnam Social Value Alliance (Agency for Meteorology Climate Change, under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment; Department of Planning and Investment and Department of Forest Protection of Trà Vinh Province; UNEP Korea; Trà Vinh University; Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology; Vietnam National University, Hanoi; Saigon Newport Corporation; Vietnam News Agency; Dream Sharing Social Cooperative; Center for Environment and Community Assets Development; and others), and 300 students of Trà Vinh University.

The ceremony began with the welcoming address of Jeong In-bo, director of SK Innovation’s SV Group, and the congratulatory address by Truong Duc Tri, vice director of the Agency for Meteorology Climate Change, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of Vietnam.

▲ Director Jeong In-bo of SK Innovation’s SV Group delivers his welcoming address in the launch day (right)

The launch featured an interesting ceremony of the representatives of each participating group signing the mangrove leaf-shaped tablets, engraved with the logo of their organizations, and attaching the tablets to a mangrove tree.

A representative of the SK Innovation’s PR Center, who oversaw the preparations for the launch ceremony, commented that “this performance was intended to symbolize the goal of the Vietnam Social Value Alliance, namely the creation of social value through activities like mangrove forest recovery.”

02 | Mangrove and love together: MangLub, the first social enterprise in the Trà Vinh Province

The launch ceremony of the Vietnam Social Value Alliance was followed by the opening of MangLub, the first social enterprise in Vietnam’s Trà Vinh Province.

The social enterprise MangLub’s name is a portmanteau of “mangrove” and “love.” The goal of this social enterprise is to spread social values through the mangrove restoration project. It is expected to act as the coordinator of the Mangrove Restoration Project and a host of other projects, including mangrove seedling care, manufacturing/merchandising of mangrove by-products such as soap and honey, and ecotourism projects like the “Mangrove Volun-tour.”

(*) MangLub plans to develop the Mangrove Volun-tour, a tourist program combining tourism in Trà Vinh Province and volunteer activities related to mangrove trees. This is expected to raise the awareness of local and international tourists about the importance of mangrove forests and create valuable sources of income for the people of Trà Vinh Province.

MangLub also operates I’m ZIC, a store offering light maintenance and lubricant change for motorcycles that will act as sites of vocational and management training for the budding engineers of the region. In fact, MangLub’s opening ceremony doubled as the opening ceremony for the very first I’m ZIC store.

Located near Trà Vinh University, the ZIC Center (the first I’m ZIC store) will offer intern and part-time positions to university students, and more stable and future-oriented job opportunities for the graduates of the university. ZIC Center specializes in M7 and M5 lines of SK Lubricant motorbike engine oil and will offer a host of benefits like the membership services to the young motorbikers of the region. It also plans to implement a joint program with the vocational training center and startup incubators of Trà Vinh University.

03 | The road to the Vietnam Social Value Alliance

Since last May’s MOU with the Trà Vinh People’s Committee, the Department of Forest Protection, UNEP Korea, and SNP (the largest logistics company in Vietnam) for the restoration of mangrove forests in Vietnam, SK Innovation has continued to work toward the generation of environmental and social values in Vietnam.

In May 2018, SK Innovation hosted the first Mangrove Tree Sapling Planting Volunteer Project, where members of the SK Group and the residents of Trà Vinh Province planted new mangrove trees in the 5 ha area within the Trà Vinh Province. They have planted more than 35,000 mangrove trees in an 11 ha area over four planting events until this March of this year, with more than 70,000 trees scheduled to be planted over the course of this year.

▲ MOU ceremony for the mangrove restoration held last May (left) and the site of the first Mangrove Tree Sapling Planting Volunteer Project (right)

Representatives of participating agencies in the Vietnam Social Value Alliance visited Korea—particularly the SK Innovation headquarters, SK Ulsan Complex, and morethanCONTINEW, a social enterprise established with support from SK Innovation—last February to benchmark the earlier efforts of SK Innovation for social values and better understanding and cooperation between the participating agencies.

Director Lim Soo-gil of SK Innovation PR Center commented, “By countering climate change and creating jobs in Vietnam, which is the core business area of SK Group, we seek to engage ourselves in creating social values proactively.” The director continued, “We have significant experience in raising social enterprises to prominence, so we will use that experience as the basis in successfully establishing the first social enterprise of the Trà Vinh Province and spreading that model’s success to Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and other areas.”