For the past 27 years, Yuhan-Kimberly, a leading life innovation company in Korea, has hosted Green Camp, a high-energy environmental learning experience for female high school students, to help raise their awareness of their natural surroundings.

“The camp started as a forest field trip but over time, it has been transformed into an environmental leadership program,” said Choe Kyoo-bok, Yuhan-Kimberly president and CEO, who attended the four-day camp held at Saneum Forest in Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi Province, which started Aug. 1.

“I hope for this to be an opportunity to deepen the participants’ understanding of their environment,” he added.

Since 1988, the company ― formed by a joint venture between Korean pharmaceutical firm Yuhan and global personal care company Kimberly-Clark ― has been funding Green Camp to help students from all walks of life learn the importance of natural resource conservation. 

Over 4,000 female high school students have participated in the event over the decades.

This year, 140 students from across the country came together to learn about forestry, meet environmental professionals, learn the value of teamwork, and have fun making new friends, Yuhan-Kimberly said.

All the programs were conducted at Saneum Natural Recreation Forest, an area surrounded by four densely forested mountains.

Yoon Jeong-hoon, a 23-year-old college student who took part in the camp five years ago, returned to the event, this time as a volunteer instructor.

“My past experience at the camp made me choose landscape architecture as my major in university. I’m glad that I had a chance to come back,” Yoon said.

Kim Bo-bae, another participant, said she was awed by nature in general. “When I hiked through the forest, I realized that nature is far from what I had seen in textbooks or on television.”

Green Camp is a part of Yuhan-Kimberly’s bigger campaign called Keep Korea Green to raise environmental awareness nationwide. The campaign marks its 30th anniversary this year.

So far, it has involved various environmentally friendly projects such as afforestation programs for treeless areas and antidesertification prevention projects in Northeast Asia. This year, the company plans to plant 50 million trees across Korea.

“Our corporate objective is to pursue a sustainable, yet eco-friendly business,” said the Yuhan-Kimberly chief executive.

This year, an official at the World Federation of the United Nations Associations also participated in the event as a guest speaker to show its support for Yuhan-Kimberly’s proactive approach to environmental issues.

To provide a real-life learning experience, the company also invited professionals from the Korea Forest Research Institute to introduce students to the flora and fauna of the wilderness, and the role that trees play in purifying the air.

By Park Han-na (hnpark@heraldcorp.com)