On February 15, 2024, K-water and the Woori Financial Group signed an agreement on “win-win partnership and cooperation.” The agreement is aimed at promoting win-win partnership and cooperation with small businesses and SMEs and strengthening strategic alliance for ESG management. Under the agreement, the two parties will work together mainly in four areas: supporting the growth of SMEs and small businesses; implementing carbon neutrality measures and ESG management; cooperating in overseas projects; and funding. K-water plans to provide SMEs and small business with effective financial support and offer business consulting including ESG diagnosis and business strategy setting to companies struggling with ESG management.
K-water is the first public corporation that declared water-specialized ESG management in March 2021 and established the ESG Mid- to Long-Term Implementation Strategy 2023-2027 to realize and spread the ESG value throughout the entire water service cycle. As the K-Testbed operator, K-water shares its public infrastructure with startups and small and medium-sized venture companies in all industries to promote and support R&D for innovative ideas and field demonstrations. K-water is also actively involved in developing water-related technologies and fostering the water industry by matching high-quality products with potential buyers. Together with private corporations in Korea and overseas, K-water is building the Daesan Coastal Desalination Plant northwest of Chungnam Province. In January, K-water signed an agreement to offer the pilot plant as a testbed and support technology development. K-water has been working with the National Commission for Corporate Partnership since 2022 to spread ESG management among SMEs by developing customized ESG indices based on standard ESG guidelines, offering business-specific ESG education, conducting competence diagnosis, and performing site inspection.

K-water has been rated AA in the ESG evaluation for two years in a row in 2022 and 2023 in recognition for its ESG management efforts. It also won the Korea Management Award and the Porter Prize for Excellence in CVS.ESG in 2023 for the innovative results achieved on the back of its systematic and robust ESG management; thus further solidifying its ESG leadership.
This year, K-water plans to concentrate its accumulated ESG management competence and develop and expand win-win partnership activities with local communities around individual river basins so as to improve its ESG management further. Going forward, K-water will expand its ESG boundaries beyond Korea and work harder to create ESG outcomes that can save local communities and Earth.