Hyundai Motor Group was named as the most socially responsible company in China, becoming the first Korean company to win the title, according to a Chinese study.

The South Korean auto conglomerate said Monday that the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences carried out a corporate social responsibility study on local and foreign companies in China, and Hyundai Motor ranked top on this year’s list. It is the first time for a foreign company operating in China to rank No. 1 in the corporate social responsibility (CSR) category since 2014 when the agency started conducting such study.

CASS is considered the most prestigious academic research center in China for study in the fields of philosophy and social sciences. Every year, it picks 300 firms and evaluates their contribution to society and environmental protection, based on their corporate standing such as revenue and brand power.

Hyundai Motor Group, which owns Korea’s two largest auto makers Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp., has topped the CASS’s CSR index list among automakers operating in China since 2014, and its overall standing has continued to ascend from 17th in 2014 to fifth in 2015 then to third in 2016.

The company has led various CSR projects in China ever since it made the first foray into the country, said a Hyundai Motor Group official. It has helped to transform desert in China’s Inner Mongolia into grassland and rebuild houses in poor neighborhoods for nearly 10 years to name a few.

By Lee Seung-hoon and Cho Jeehyun

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