Hanyang University announced that Professor Yang Jae-yong of the School of Interdisciplinary Industrial Studies and Han Hye-ju, a senior in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, won the Excellence Award at the ‘2025 Korea Production and Operations Management Society(KOPOMS) Fall Conference’ held at Yonsei University on November 7. They received the honor for their paper, ‘A Study on ESG Evaluation Indicators Considering the Characteristics of the Construction Industry.’

The conference was hosted by KOPOMS(토토사이트 회원가입 안시켜줌 Wook Jung at Dongguk University as President) and sponsored by LG CNS, KOGAS, KOSHA, KISTI, Korea Rural Community Corporation, and KIAT.

토토사이트 회원가입 안시켜줌 Yang and student Han Hye-ju raised the issue that despite the rapid expansion of mandatory ESG disclosure globally and domestically, the construction industry is notably absent from the K-ESG sector-specific guidelines operated by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy(MOTIE). They emphasized the necessity of developing ESG indicators specialized for the construction sector. Their presentation utilized data to demonstrate that the environmental and social risks of the construction industry are among the highest across all industries, highlighting the urgency of establishing ESG evaluation standards that reflect these unique characteristics.

Since releasing the first version of the K-ESG guidelines in December 2021, MOTIE has distributed additional guidelines for supply chain response and six specific industries—steel, petrochemicals, semiconductors, automobiles, bio, and displays—as of December 2024. However, despite being a major industry, construction is still excluded from these sector-specific guidelines. Existing research and policies have failed to provide ESG standards that systematically reflect the unique traits of construction, such as massive waste generation and a high proportion of industrial accidents.

Professor Yang and Han Hye-ju developed a framework of 10 customized ESG indicators for the construction industry by reconstructing approximately 30 indicators extracted from domestic and international literature to fit the Korean industrial environment. The 10-indicator system consists of: Environment (E): Eco-friendly technology, environmental labeling, raw/sub-materials, and pollutants (4 indicators); Social (S): Local community, quality management, industrial safety, and shared growth (5 indicators); Governance (G): Audit body-related (1 indicator). The research team verified the validity of these indicators by applying them to the sustainability reports of major domestic general construction companies and proposed necessary improvements for future reporting.

Student Han Hye-ju, who delivered the presentation, explained, "The construction industry is an environmentally burdensome sector, accounting for 30–40% of global industrial waste, over one-third of EU waste, approximately 62% of UK waste, and half of South Korea's total waste. Furthermore, it has the highest number of industrial accident fatalities among all sectors, leading to the need to establish integrated management standards for environmental and social risks."

Professor Jae-yong Yang remarked, "This award is an example of the external recognition of educational achievements from the 'ESG Evaluation Methodology' course, which has been offered every semester since 2023 for all undergraduate students. It is particularly meaningful that a student produced significant research results by combining their major with an ESG perspective."

토토사이트 회원가입 안시켜줌 Yang continues to expand his research and education in ESG, having published the book ESG: How Ethical a Choice Is It? last May and providing an online lecture titled ‘ESG and Ethical Management’ through HY-MOOC. The lecture is available for free to the public via the Professional Course ▶ Micro-learning menu on the HY-MOOC website. Moving forward, the research team plans to continue follow-up studies and industry applications to enhance the practical utility of these construction-specific ESG indicators.