South Korean cosmetics giant AmorePacific marks its 70th anniversary this year. Since its inception in 1945, it has forged ahead with a host of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives to contribute to society as a good corporate citizen.
As the No.1 cosmetics company in S. Korea has set great store by CSR activities under the slogan “Beautiful Changes in Your Life, Make-up Your Life,” the company has been viewed as the cosmetics industry leader who faithfully fulfills its social responsibilities as a corporate citizen.
On November 29, 2007, AmorePacific became the first Korean cosmetics company to join the UN Global Compact (UNGC). AmorePacific said that becoming a signatory to the UNGC was a declaration of AmorePacific’s commitment to aligning its strategies, policies and operations with the UN Global Compact’s Ten Principles (in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption) in stages on a continuing basis.
AmorePacific’s CSR activities are divided largely into two: CSR through a public foundation and direct CSR activities.
To make its CSR initiatives professional, sustainable and systemic, AmorePacific funded the creation of a public foundation and has made its annual donation to help with the upkeep of the foundation and fund its operations. On top of that, as a corporate citizen, AmorePacific has directly launched and supported various social campaigns.
<> AmorePacific Make-up Your Life campaign
AmorePacific Make-up Your Life is a campaign launched in 2008 to help female cancer patients, who suffer from sudden changes in their appearance (e.g. skin problems, hair loss) due to cancer treatment processes, through makeup, skin care and hair styling to make them feel better about themselves. The campaign is hosted by AmorePacific and sponsored by the Korea Breast Cancer Foundation, the Korea Breast Cancer Society (KBCS) and Korean Oncology Nursing Society.
Amore door-to-door sales counselors and instructors have voluntarily led the campaign each year, acting as beauty missionaries. Until 2014, a total of 9,221 female cancer patients and 2,904 Amore counselor volunteers had participated in the campaign, making AmorePacific Make-up Your Life the cosmetics maker’s major CSR initative.
Since 2011, the campaign has expanded to China and drawn positive responses from Chinese hospitals and patients. Marking the 5th anniversary this year, the campaign has increased the number of events to help more people benefit from it.
<>AmorePacific Pink Ribbon campaign for breast health
The Korea Breast Cancer Foundation (KBCS), the first non-profit breast cancer foundation in the nation, was founded in 2000, funded solely by AmorePacific. Since 2001, the KBCS has been hosting the Pink Ribbon Campaign to raise public awareness of breast cancer.
Approximately 460,000 people have participated in the Pink Ribbon Campaign for the past 14 years, thereby making it a leading campaign for women's health.
In celebration of the 15th anniversary of the Pink Ribbon Campaign, AmorePacific and the KBCS are continuously arousing public awareness of breast health under the slogan “Pink Ribbon, Always.”
Since 2001 the Pink Ribbon Love Marathon event, one of the main Pink Ribbon Campaign programs, has been held annually to disseminate useful information on breast health and underline the importance of early breast cancer detection. Until 2014, about 254,000 people took part in the Pink Ribbon Love Marathon event, donating the proceeds (a total of 2.6 billion won) from the marathon events to the KBCS.
<> AmorePacific's Heemang (Hope) Store campaign
AmorePacific's Hope Store campaign is a micro credit project that provides startup loans to low-income single mothers who want to start their own businesses, such as opening an eatery, hair salon, concession stand or car wash or becoming a cab owner-driver or soap maker.
The Hope Store Campaign, launched in 2003, provides wannabe entrepreneurs with start-up loans, consulting services and follow-up management services. The Hope Store, a series of start-ups run by female single parents, saw its first store open in 2004. The number of Hope Stores broke the 200 mark in 2013.
According to a survey, the average income of Hope Store entrepreneurs amounted to 2.53 million won, a roughly 2.5-fold increase from the average pre-entrepreneurship income of 980,000 won. The rate of general recipients of government assistance with basic living costs halved from 22.6 percent to 11.8 percent and that of conditional recipients fell from 13.1 percent to 9.4 percent.
All the low-income female single parents, regardless of their credit rating, are eligible to apply for the Hope Store fund. Neither collateral nor guarantee is required.
The Beautiful World Fund, which funds the Hope Store campaign, was set up when the family of AmorePacific founder Suh Sung-hwan donated the inheritance left by founder Suh to the Beautiful Foundation on June 30, 2003 to pay tribute to founder Suh’s lifelong contribution to the betterment of women and children’s welfare.
Such generosity has been regarded as a perfect example of practicing noblesse oblige and returning wealth back to society. On July 2, 2014, AmorePacific held the “Invitation of a Lifelong Friend” event at the AmorePacific Human Resources Development Center, located in Yongin, Seoul, to mark the 10th year anniversary of the fund for the Hope Store campaign.
<> The GREENCYCLE campaign
The GREENCYCLE campaign, an upgraded version of AmorePacific’s eco-friendly CSR activity (e.g. the empty bottle recycling campaign), involves recycling and upcycling materials used in cosmetic packaging.
The GREENCYCLE campaign is an amalgam of a ‘smart green spirit’ (which underlines that environmental management and protection should not be just empty rhetoric - but it should be part of our daily lives) and upcycling (which goes beyond the simple recycling of empty containers to transform them into new materials or products of better quality or for better environmental value).
The GREENCYCLE campaign was inspired by Innisfree’s 2009 empty bottle recycling event. The empty bottle recycling event was so well-received that it later expanded to Aritaum stores, large discount stores and department stores in 2010 and then to Etude House stores and AmorePacific Group stores across the nation in 2012.
The empty bottle recycling event urges customers to return empty cosmetics containers in exchange for membership points: they get 500 Beauty points for each empty container under AmorePacific’s membership card program (Etude House offer 300 points for each container). Since 2009, AmorePacific has recycled over 456 tons of containers, thus reducing 456 tones of CO2 emissions, the equivalent of planting 4,107 pine saplings.
The GREENCYCLE campaign focuses on research on how to recycle used containers in various eco-friendly ways. In June 2014, Moa Tree, a piece of recycled art made from used containers was installed at the Primera Myeong-dong. And 2015 Pink Ribbon Love Marathon event, held in October in Seoul, featured a pink ribbon-shaped installation made from recycled bottles, which served as a perfect backdrop for photo ops for marathon participants.
The GREENCYCLE campaign also includes the Eco Green Pot project whereby used Innisfree containers are recycled into plant pots.
<>AmorePacific Opens Its CSR Portal ‘Make-up Your Life’
In April 2013, AmorePacific newly opened its CSR portal ‘Make-up Your Life,’ which had been run as an in-house system, to the public.
The portal has unified nearly 10 AmorePacific’s CSR initiatives, including Make-up Your Life, the Pink Ribbon campaign, the Hope Store campaign and the GREENCYCLE campaign, under a single brand, Make-up Your Life. The portal is open to everyone, from AmorePacific employees and the general public to campaign beneficiaries, to make participation easier.
Earlier this month, the portal obtained the Web Accessibility Certification Mark (WA Certification Mark), which is awarded to a website that complies with the standard guidelines for web accessibility in a way that does not inconvenience the socially disadvantaged (e.g. the elderly and disabled).
Meanwhile, AmorePacific opened a mobile version (http://m.makeupyourlife.co.kr) of the portal in the same month to further boost the portal’s accessibility. By making its CSR portal accessible via any Internet-ready device, AmorePacific, many think, has also galvanized its CSR activities online.
With the portal bearing the WA Certification Mark, AmorePacific expects that the opening of the mobile version will help make the portal a rallying point for its CSR activities that draws participation from the public and various stake holders and facilitates communication with them.
