In Vietnam, Lotte is as committed to coexisting with local communities as it is to expanding its distribution business. Alongside repairing school facilities and supporting children's surgeries, employees directly participate in street cleaning, mirroring the social contribution activities conducted domestically. The aim is to go beyond the image of a foreign-owned distribution company that merely sells goods for profit and to take root in local society.
Lotte Mart is promoting an integrated ESG campaign in Vietnam encompassing environment, society, and co-growth. The scope is diverse, including environmental protection, education and medical support, and expanding sales channels for SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises). Lotte Mart's "Good Today" program is a representative child education support project. It repaired facilities at Hien Van Primary School in Bac Ninh Province in northern Vietnam and donated educational computers. Coding classes and Korean fan-making workshops were also conducted for children. The company also provides scholarships to university students in the Ho Chi Minh City area through the Lotte Scholarship Foundation.
Medical support projects are also being carried out. By sponsoring Operation Smile, an international medical aid organization, it supported surgeries for Vietnamese children suffering from cleft lip and palate. Cleft lip and palate is a condition where the lips or palate are congenitally split due to developmental issues during the fetal period. It is rare for foreign-owned companies to conduct child medical support projects.
Environmental protection activities are standard practice. Last June, it drew attention by conducting citizen plogging in the West Lake area of Hanoi with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Environment. Since last April, it has introduced electronic receipts to reduce the use of difficult-to-recycle thermal paper and is carrying out activities to reduce plastic bag usage, such as providing points to customers who use eco-friendly shopping bags.
Co-growth with local companies is one of Lotte Mart's localization philosophies. Through the "Global Bridge in Vietnam" event, it supports the development of local sales channels for Korean food and beauty SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) and is expanding cooperation with Vietnamese companies and suppliers. Hiring local personnel during the process of opening new stores is also a basic principle. For these reasons, Lotte Mart was selected this year as one of the "Top 10 ESG Companies in Vietnam's Distribution Sector" and the "Top 10 Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Companies Leading Eco-Friendly Transition."
Lotte Department Store is also called the street cleaner around Diamond Plaza in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City. This is due to street cleaning and environmental purification campaigns involving employees. District 1 is a core urban area densely packed with historical and commercial facilities, suffering from garbage problems. It is reported that merchants and residents near the plaza smile broadly when they see people wearing blue vests (Lotte Department Store's street cleaning uniforms) carrying black trash bags.
Efforts to reduce carbon emissions generated during operations are also being made in parallel. Employees responsible for engineering and facility management complete training on greenhouse gas reduction and eco-friendly energy conservation, and are also focusing on enhancing their capabilities to improve building energy efficiency.
A representative from Lotte Department Store and Lotte Mart said, "We plan to continue environmental protection, education and medical support, and coexistence activities with partner companies, while broadening our connection points with the Vietnamese community."
in LIVING
