A Look At Our Social Contribution Businesses
Some of SK hynix’s most notable ventures supporting vulnerable communities include Happy GPS and Silver Friend. Happy GPS prevents children with developmental disabilities and elderly individuals with memory impairments from going missing, and the Silver Friend program provides AI speaker to elderlies in order to keep lonely elders company and aids in accident prevention. Both have received overwhelmingly positive feedback expressing the impact of each in overcoming the challenges within their respective communities.
However, these efforts are not the only ways SK hynix is lending a helping hand. In addition to these well-known projects, SK hynix is pursuing CSR efforts around the world to support the local communities our employees call home.
Let’s take a look at the wide variety of CSR activities introduced during the first half of this year and the diverse communities they serve.
Supporting Our Communities around the World
SK hynix America Inc.
On June 23, 20 employees from SK hynix America and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) gathered at Second Harvest in Silicon Valley. Second Harvest, a food bank, collects grocery donations and distributes them to low-income individuals and families. Employees from both companies donated their time to sort and pack food donations for those in need.
Since last year, SK hynix has worked collaboratively in this way with major client, HPE, to actively pursue Social Values (SV). SK hynix approached HPE with the joint volunteering plan in an effort to introduce SV metrics and create social value as a part of their business relationship.
*All participants in the volunteer program had completed their COVID-19 vaccinations in advance of their participation.
Volunteer participant Edward Parsons, Senior Manager at SK hynix, stated “It’s really meaningful to lend a helping hand to those in need during the pandemic.” HPE employees also added that it “felt so rewarding to pack the food boxes and help in relieving the concerns of local families,”
These efforts serve as a wonderful example of cooperation for social value between global companies, further building mutual trust and leading to a stronger partnership overall.
Wuxi and Chongqing subsidiaries in China
Our Wuxi subsidiary has been running their ‘Loving Heart’ program every quarter for vulnerable communities since 2007. In the first half of this year alone, 75 people participated in several events and activities including a sports day for children with physical disabilities, the painting of murals on school walls, DIY creative projects, and visiting cultural experience centers.
Since the ‘Loving Heart’ program’s inception, a total of 4,480 employees from the Wuxi subsidiary have participated, benefiting more than 14,000 people. This is a great example of CSR demonstrates SK hynix’s commitment to working with local organizations to spread happiness throughout the community.
On June 4, National Disability Day in China, our Chongqing subsidiary donated ¥30,000 (approximately $4,600 USD) to the city’s welfare fund supporting the handicapped community. The donation will be allocated to upgrading artificial inner ears for deaf children. The Chongqing subsidiary also made a donation in-kind of nutritional supplements and snacks to a nearby rehabilitation facility in an effort to help the patients remain motivated and focused on their rehabilitation journey.
Additionally, during Spring Festival in February, our Chongqing employees inspired their local community by organizing a gift donation for children who spend hours home alone waiting for their working parents to return.
SK hynix memory solutions Eastern Europe
In Belarus, SK hynix memory solutions Eastern Europe has been running their ‘Wings of Happiness’ project since 2018 to help children and adolescents with developmental disabilities better adapt to societal structures and connect with their communities. The program offers various activities designed to help develop interpersonal skills including operating an art studio, putting on plays, making robots, woodwork sessions, chess club, etc.
As a part of this project, every October, one week is designated as the ‘Wings of Happiness’ holiday season. Over the past three years, each event has drawn significant attention with over 2,000 participants in total.
Doubling Our Impact with Sharing and Donations: Supporting the Community, Empowering the Youth, and Job Creation
Online Bazaar at Communications & External Affairs
On May 21, SK hynix employees held a fiercely competitive bidding war to purchase items at an auction held by the Communications & External Affairs division.
Even though, due to the pandemic, the event was held online, more than 100 employees donated items and joined the live auction to bid on items and donate to a good cause. Some participants even donated their talents by sharing videotaped impressions of each other and partaking in entertaining performances, increasing not only the joy and excitement but the total fundraising amount as well.
The bazaar has been an annual affair since 2019, with more than 10 million won (approximately $8,700 USD) worth of donations collected each year. The proceeds are donated to SK hynix’s Happy GPS initiative to help prevent the disappearances of elderly individuals with memory disorders and children with developmental disabilities.
Support those in need with ICT
SK hynix also operates the ‘ICT Reception Room’ based on the CSR belief that connecting humans and technology creates happiness.
An expansion of the Silver Friend AI speaker business for the independent elderly, this program offers four services: Happy Lounge, the chance to experience ICT equipment and care robots; Health Lounge, monitoring health conditions with smart health care programs and wearables; Vitality Lounge, providing various entertainment sources such as VR and AR; and Knowledge Lounge, supporting digital education and helping the elderly use kiosks and tablets easily.
Each of the four areas play an important role in preventing senior citizens from feeling isolated in our modern, digitized society by providing opportunities to familiarize themselves with ICT devices.
Fostering future talent
SK hynix also actively supports young talent, the rising stars of our future. SK hynix’s Heinstein is a program that provides coding and software programming education to children and adolescents in the spirit of nurturing scientific talent.
Our program supports around 1,000 kids every year in taking coding classes provides in-depth education to the applicants among the competition winners in order to help them win prizes in both domestic and international coding / software contests. As of 2020, the program became available online, allowing any child to easily participate wherever they are in the world (as of 2021 the program supported more than 3,000 children.)
Employment support for socially vulnerable groups
SK hynix’s ICT Infrastructure Eco-Business, responsible for recycling and reusing electronic waste, in cooperation with Happy ICT foundation, operates an employment support program for vulnerable communities. 40% of all members of Happy ICT belong to a vulnerable community and 34% among them identify as people with a disability. The foundation sorts reusable resources after examining old ICT devices from SK hynix, either fixing them to sell as second-hand products or donating them to those in need. Profits from these efforts are used to create even more jobs for individuals from vulnerable communities. In parallel, the program contributes to bettering the environment by recycling and encouraging more community donations.
In a similar effort, SK hynix established the Happy Bread bakery through Happy Moa. A subsidiary-type standard workplace for the disabled, Happy Bread seeks to provide job security and economic independence for its employees and members of their community. In addition, Purme-Socialfarm, our yet another socially contributing organization which establishes smart farms applying ICT technologies, seeks to employee development disabilities to help them become economically self-sufficient, and increase disability employment rate.
Although it is a difficult time around the world due to the impacts of the pandemic, SK hynix continues to share happiness with communities under the social value of coexistence.
SK hynix is committed to continue its efforts to improve and develop additional CSR activities in support of vulnerable communities around the world, empowering every individual to live a rich and rewarding life as an integrated member of society.
