92
Global Compact International Yearbook 2013
As social and environmental issues change and become more complex, a new approach is
required beyond the existing efforts of governments, NGOs, and corporations to tackle global
challenges. In this regard, social enterprises are becoming significant players in bolstering
global sustainability and addressing social challenges in innovative and sustainable ways.
With the objectives of creating both economic and social value, social enterprises adopt
managerial efficiency and market mechanisms in their social operations to offer more
customized and efficient solutions that deliver larger and more sustainable impacts.
For social enterprises to grow, support
from – and cooperation among – dif-
ferent players is necessary. Large corpora-
tions can play an especially important
role in supporting social enterprises
through their state-of-the-art technolo-
gies, financial firepower, and global net-
works. Recognizing social enterprises
can be a vehicle to effectively deal with
fundamental problems.
SK’s effort to build an ecosystem for
social enterprises
SK has been focusing on creating a vi-
brant and robust ecosystem that supports
social enterprises. SK has tested various
ideas by establishing new social enter-
prises and supporting existing ones in
Korea. SK is endeavoring to leverage its
core competencies in supporting social
enterprises to maximize their impacts.
SK established Happy ICT, a social en-
terprise that offers IT training and field
IT experiences to the underprivileged to
help support their employment opportu-
nities. Happy ICT is working to narrow
the information gap between different
socioeconomic classes and to build a
social safety net in the telecommunica-
tion sector. SK has also transformed one
of its subsidiaries, Happy Narae – a
maintenance, repair, and operations
company – into a social enterprise. As a
social enterprise that supports other so-
cial enterprises, Happy Narae purchases
products of other social enterprises, thus
providing a healthier and broader sales
channel. To find and nurture prospective
social entrepreneurs, SK also launched
a website called “Sesang,” a collabora-
tion network that brings together the
expertise of diverse sectors such as social
enterprises, governments, and NGOs.
Through the website, SK is consolidat-
ing the foundation to support social
enterprises through information services,
communication, and research.
Reflecting the increasing interest of the
UN in enhancing its partnerships with
the private sector, the UN Global Com-
pact and SK came together to launch
an online platform to connect social
enterprises with corporations and other
stakeholders such as impact investors.
At the Rio+20 Corporate Sustainability
Forum in June 2012, which was hosted
by the Global Compact, SK announced
a collaborative project with the Global
Compact called The Global Social Enter-
prise Action Hub (SE Hub), an online plat-
form for social enterprises and impact
investors. The SE Hub collaboration was
also reiterated at the World Economic
Forum in January 2013, and it is being
pushed ahead as one of the Global Com-
pact LEAD priority projects. The Global
Compact and SK plan to unveil the beta
version of the Hub at the 2013 Global
Compact Leaders Summit and to launch
the final version by the end of 2014. As
The Global
Social Enterprise
Action Hub
SK
By the Social Enterprise Team, SK SUPEX Council