Shinhan Financial Group has won the top grade recognition in climate change leadership from Carbon Disclosure Project, becoming the first South Korean financial institute to maintain the honor for seven years straight.

The Korean banking group has received Leadership A, the top notch prize in the CDP Climate Change criteria this year, marking the seventh consecutive year of such achievement, officials said in a release Thursday.

Also, based on the CDP report issued in April, the CDP’s Korean committee selected Shinhan Financial as member of the Carbon Management Honors Club for the sixth consecutive year.

The CDP is an international nonprofit organization based in the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States, seeking to help companies and cities determine their environmental impact and to provide the results to investors across the globe.

Since 2002, over 8,400 companies have publicly disclosed environmental information through CDP. The yearly CDP report is deemed one of the most trusted global indicators on sustainable growth, along with the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations list.

“The fact that (Shinhan Financial) has won the top grade recognition in climate change leadership for seven years straight proves that the group’s ecofriendly management has led to tangible results,” said an official.

“We will continue to make our best effort to spread good influence through society by pushing ahead with the econfriendly strategy in the years to come.”

Last month, Shinhan Financial unveiled the “Zero Carbon Drive,” the group’s road map to totally remove carbon emissions from its asset portfolio by year 2050, marking the first of such moves among financial groups in the East Asian region.

The top-tier banking group’s green drive also comes in line with the Moon Jae-in administration’s policy initiative -- namely the Korean New Deal -- which seeks to overcome the ongoing COVID-19 fallout and to leap out of slow growth through digital and green innovation.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)