"Achieving Carbon Neutrality with Corporate Points"

Professor Park Won-woo of Seoul National University Leading GEC
Proposes Alternatives for Students to Address Climate Change on Earth Day

The 22nd is Earth Day, designated by the United Nations (UN). To raise awareness of the Earth's crisis caused by climate change, a global event is held every year on this evening where lights are turned off for 10 minutes. This year’s Earth Day carries a greater sense of urgency than ever before. The fact that April temperatures rose close to 30 degrees Celsius ahead of Earth Day was a warning from the Earth urging us to respond more actively to climate change.

Professor Park Won-woo, Department of Business Administration, Seoul National University. Photo by Baek Jong-min

Park Won-woo, a professor in the Department of Business Administration at Seoul National University and leader of the Green Earth Community (GEC), an organization promoting carbon neutrality and land degradation neutrality to drive the leap of the Korean economy, finds this Earth Day especially meaningful. This is because the 'Jesia Point Alliance,' which systematically and innovatively supports carbon neutrality realization for students and schools through joint efforts of industry, academia, and government, has officially started operating.

Professor Park diagnoses that under the current situation, which relies on limited efforts by international organizations, individual countries, and even corporations, it will be difficult to achieve the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting the global temperature rise to within 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels. He said, "The golden time to effectively respond to the climate crisis is very short, within 10 years, so it is urgent for every individual to live a carbon-neutral lifestyle. Schools must move beyond merely emphasizing the meaning and necessity of carbon neutrality and support carbon neutrality at the individual level."

Following last year’s Net Zero and Land Degradation Neutrality forum, GEC has set the starting point of the full-scale Net Zero movement this year on youth and schools.

Professor Park knocked on the doors of companies to concretize plans allowing students to use and donate corporate points to overcome the climate crisis. GEC is preparing to enable students to access the voluntary carbon offset market (VCM) using corporate points. Companies can allow consumers to use points that remain as liabilities, and students can use expiring points to joyfully participate in environmental protection, creating a win-win opportunity. For this reason, the blockchain platform operator 'Jesia Platform' launched 'Carbon Monster,' a carbon credit donation application, on Earth Day. Carbon Monster is a donation app for the 'Save the Earth Initiative.' Developed together with GEC, it aims to encourage education and participation through the importance of the VCM market and activation of the carbon neutrality market.

Professor Park introduced, "Students can acquire fragmented carbon offset credits with corporate points and realize carbon neutrality through burning, donating, or saving them." According to him, companies emphasizing ESG management have shown interest in this project and are connecting systems to enable the use of points. From the school’s perspective, the carbon neutrality leading school project can be implemented without budget burdens. Students can erase their carbon footprints and, in the long term, receive rewards such as creating funds for university tuition.

Professor Park said, "We plan to systematically verify the effects of carbon neutrality realization for schools and students by combining corporate points and VCM, publish a paper in early 2026, and have the students and teachers, who are the main actors of the activities, present the content and effects at international events such as the World Economic Forum (WEF)."