AA1000AS assurance for Asian mobile phone leader

SK Telecom, a part of Korea’s fourth-biggest conglomerate SK Group, commissioned Two Tomorrows to assure its 2008 sustainability report.

SK Telecom is one of the leading sustainability reporters in Korea. It has an effective governance structure for sustainability that includes a Corporate Citizenship Committee under the board of directors.

Our work began with a benchmark of the company’s 2007 sustainability report against the Accountability Rating (now the Tomorrow’s Value Rating) to identify strengths and weaknesses and highlight examples of best practice in peer companies.

We then undertook assurance of the 2008 report using the AA1000 Assurance Standard (2008). The assurance process included interviews with vice presidents and senior managers responsible for management of sustainability issues in the company’s Seoul headquarters, data checking, report review and the production of a public assurance statement and internal management letter and presentation.

Our key recommendation included:

• ensuring regular reporting to the board, ongoing sustainability training and capacity building of members of the Corporate Citizenship Committee to ensure the committee continues to build links with and alignment to the core business strategy
• setting up a high-level stakeholder link to the Corporate Citizenship Committee, which includes representatives from key stakeholder groups
• linking executive-level risk-based review of material issues more systematically to the materiality process
• further checking of internal systems for information security and to ensure an appropriate response to stakeholder concerns.