TK Elevator employees and staff from the Mapo Disability Welfare Center pose for a photo Tuesday at the center in Seongsan-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul, during a ceremony to present first-aid kits upcycled from retired employee uniforms. [TK Elevator]
TK Elevator employees and staff from the Mapo Disability Welfare Center pose for a photo Tuesday at the center in Seongsan-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul, during a ceremony to present first-aid kits upcycled from retired employee uniforms. [TK Elevator]

TK Elevator has donated first-aid kits made from recycled employee uniforms to local welfare organizations, turning workwear that would otherwise have been discarded into safety supplies — combining resource circulation with community giving.

The company announced Wednesday that it ran a spring corporate social responsibility campaign, "TKE Safety On," from April through this month.

The campaign collected employee uniforms no longer in use and had them sewn into pouches for first-aid kits, which were then donated to the community. The initiative aimed to carry the spirit of "safety" embedded in the uniforms workers wore on the job out into the wider community.

A total of 400 kits were produced, each containing basic medical supplies for emergencies — bandages, cotton wool, adhesive bandages, antiseptic, ointment and plasters. Employees also took part directly in packing the kits.

The kits were delivered to eight senior and disability welfare centers in Seoul's Mapo-gu and Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, to mark July's Industrial Safety and Health Month. TK Elevator's headquarters is in Mapo-gu, while its elevator campus is based in Cheonan.

Corporate social responsibility efforts have increasingly moved beyond straightforward donations to address environmental, safety and community issues together. Programs that combine the use of waste resources with efforts to raise awareness of industrial safety have drawn particular attention as practical examples of ESG activity.

"This campaign is all the more meaningful because our employees participated directly, putting the value of resource circulation into practice and delivering a genuine act of sharing to the community," TK Elevator CEO Jo Yeong-jo said. "We will continue to pursue a wide range of social contribution activities that take both environmental and social values into account."

Earlier, on May 28, TK Elevator donated 45 million won ($30,500) to the Seoul Community Chest of Korea's Love Fruit fund. The donation will support the upcycling campaign as well as an elevator safety education program the company has operated since 2023.


kwater@heraldcorp.com