Hyundai Motor (005380) said on the 15th that its "Forest Without a Name" campaign won the ESG Design Impact Award at the Seoul Design Award 2026, held on the 14th at Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul's Jung district.
The campaign is a global corporate social responsibility initiative that gives an identity to marine forests, which have drawn relatively little attention because they lie beneath the water, and highlights the importance of conserving marine ecosystems.
The ESG Design Impact Award, created this year, recognizes corporate projects that contribute to social and environmental value. The automaker was praised for practicing corporate social responsibility as a global company on the strength of its long-running environmental outreach, and for broadening understanding and discussion of the need to conserve marine forests worldwide through the campaign.
Hyundai Motor signed a memorandum of understanding on marine forest and blue carbon cooperation with the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and the Korea Fisheries Resources Agency in 2023. Under the agreement, it created marine forests covering a combined 3.96 square kilometers in two waters off Ulsan in 2024 and has steadily carried out conservation work there. Since May this year, it has run the Forest Without a Name project with partners from the public sector, academia and civil society.
In South Korea, the company worked with the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and the Korea Fisheries Resources Agency to name a marine forest off Jujeon-dong in Ulsan's Dong district the "Ulim Marine Forest," and with the cooperation of Ulleung County, the "Tonggumi Natural Marine Forest" off Ulleung Island also received a name. In Argentina, the company partnered with a local marine nongovernmental organization and residents' groups to name a marine forest "Auken Aiken."
Jee Sung-won, executive vice president and head of Hyundai Motor's brand marketing division, said, "Under our vision of 'Progress for Humanity,' we will continue activities that contribute to a sustainable future through technology and creativity."