Six Korean companies have been added to the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index (DJSI) said a public institution under the Ministry of Industry, Sunday.

The six companies are Samsung Biologics, Kakao, SK Telecom, Hyundai Motors, logistics company Hyundai Glovis and car parts maker Hyundai Mobis, the Korea Productivity Center said.

The Dow Jones Sustainability World Index is part of a larger family of Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) launched in 1999 as the first global sustainability benchmark. 

The index is recognized by investors as an accredited benchmark of a company’s commitment to environment, social and governance (ESG) matters.

This year, 12.7 percent, or 322 companies of 2,544 evaluated across the globe, have made it to the DJSI World index. Of them, 21 were from Korea. 

Along with the six newly listed companies, parts maker Samsung Electro-Mechanics was included again this year, maintaining its place on the index for 13 years. Mirae Asset Securities, SK Group and LG Electronics also stayed on the list, marking their 10th years on the index.

A total of 32 Korean companies were included in the DJSI Asia Pacific Index, which evaluated 609 leading companies in the Asia- Pacific region.

Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction, Samsung Biologics, Woori Holdings, Kakao and Hyundai Motors were newly included in the index. Samsung SDI, LG Chemical, and CJ Cheiljedang maintained their positions on the list this year.

For the Korean index, Samsung Biologics, SK Chemical, Kakao and electronic parts maker, LG Innotek, were newly included.

The average score of global companies included in the DJSI World index was 76.5, down 0.6 points from last year. Korean companies showed an overall improvement in the field of sustainability, with its average score rising 1.1 points to 70.9.

By categories, local companies scored significantly lower than the global average in the field of governance and management risk, 26.4 points and 16 points lower, respectively, compared to the global average.

By industries, Korean companies in the food, oil, gas, home appliances, leisure goods, automobiles, auto parts and financial services sectors scored higher on average than their global counterparts.

The evaluation results will be opened to the public on Standards & Poor’s global homepage starting this year.