LG Corp., LG Group’s holding company, said Friday that its board had launched an exclusive committee to deal with environmental, social and governance issues as part of its efforts to reinforce self-monitoring by listed affiliates for governance and compliance issues.

The ESG Committee, which will be the top decision-making body on ESG management, will report policies to the board concerning environment and safety, corporate social responsibility, customer value, shareholder value and governance.

All the committee members will be independent directors of LG, and the chief executive officers of each affiliate will also take part.

The committee will have a more specialized consulting group consisting of outside experts on ESG, the group said.

To enhance the transparency of transactions among affiliates, LG said, it has also created another committee to look at internal transactions.

LG Corp. and its listed affiliates plan to expand their auditing committee, which comprises three external directors, to four directors after a vote at next year’s shareholders meeting.

The auditing committee will assume the role of independently overseeing the compliance and fiscal soundness of the group. A new auditing department will be formed within the holding company to support the committee.

“This year, LG aims to materialize ESG management and accelerate governance improvements to seek sustainable growth and raise shareholder value,” an official at the holding firm said.

By Song Su-hyun (song@heraldcorp.com)