Hyundai Motor's ocean forest campaign wins ESG Design Impact Award at Seoul Design Awards

Hyundai Motor's global corporate social responsibility campaign "Nameless Forest" has been recognized for its social and environmental value through design.

Hyundai Motor announced Thursday that the campaign received the ESG Design Impact Award at Seoul Design Awards 2026, held Wednesday. Seoul Design Awards is an international design competition that highlights sustainable design harmonizing people, society and the environment.

The newly established ESG Design Impact Award — given to corporate projects that contribute to social and environmental value creation, as recommended by experts in design and ESG — recognized Hyundai Motor for its long-running environmental outreach efforts, its fulfillment of corporate social responsibility as a global company, and the campaign's success in broadening public awareness and discussion around the need to protect ocean forests worldwide.

Hyundai Motor has been engaged in ocean forest conservation since signing a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and the Korea Fisheries Resources Agency in 2023 on blue carbon cooperation. In 2024, the company helped establish ocean forests covering a total of 3.96 square kilometers across two sea areas off Ulsan. Building on that work, it launched the Nameless Forest project in May this year in partnership with public institutions, academic bodies and civil society organizations.

Ocean forests are coastal ecosystems formed by the dense growth of seaweed and algae. They play a vital role in absorbing carbon, enhancing fishery resources, providing habitat for marine life and filtering pollutants.

In South Korea, the ocean forest created in Jujeon-dong, Dong-gu, Ulsan, in collaboration with the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and the Korea Fisheries Resources Agency, was named "Ullim Badassup." With the cooperation of Ulleung-gun, the naturally occurring ocean forest on Ulleungdo was also given a name: "Tonggumi Natural Ocean Forest."

Overseas, an ocean forest in Argentina was named "Auken Aiken" through collaboration with a local marine NGO and community groups — a phrase meaning "home of life" in an indigenous language. In Australia, a shortlist of candidate names was drawn up with local marine experts and community members before a global public vote settled on "Yanga," meaning "crayfish" in the local indigenous language.

All four sites have been listed on Google Maps and Kakao Maps to encourage public interest and participation in ocean forest conservation and to lay the groundwork for ongoing marine ecosystem protection, Hyundai Motor said.

The Nameless Forest campaign will be on display along the Design Dullegil trail at Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul from Wednesday through Oct. 25, during Seoul Design Week, showcasing the campaign's journey and its message of marine ecosystem conservation.

"It is meaningful to be recognized for communicating the value of ocean forests in a way that resonates with the public and for elevating the need for marine ecosystem conservation into broader social discourse," said Ji Seong-won, executive vice president of Hyundai Motor's brand marketing division. "We will continue to do what is right for society and communities under our vision of 'Progress for Humanity,' and to contribute to a sustainable future through technology and creativity."

Meanwhile, at the Seoul Design Conference: THINK MAKE CHANGE, where the Seoul Design Awards ceremony was held, Hyundai Motor shared insights and case studies on its environmental initiatives — including the Nameless Forest campaign and "Tree Correspondent," a campaign that uses AI to analyze climate and ecological data and render it as news articles written from a tree's perspective.