May 2023

Donggubat is a company that has gained recognition for its excellent quality eco-friendly products such as dishwashing bars, solid soap and companion solid shampoo. Donggubat¡¯s origin story begins with the creation of jobs for the developmentally disabled, as reflected in its slogan, ¡°Sustainable Daily Life Created by the Disabled and Non-Disabled.¡±

One Step After Another

Noh Soon-ho, the CEO of Donggubat, was involved in a project that shared urban agriculture with people with developmental disabilities during his college years. From this experience, he realized that for people with developmental disabilities, having an environment where they can work for a longer time is more important than immediate job opportunities. This inspired Noh to create a company where people with developmental disabilities can work for a long time. Donggubat was established with the aim of helping solve the issue of unemployment among individuals with developmental disabilities.

Noh¡¯s philosophy was to create items that could be easily made by people with developmental disabilities, produced with a small amount of capital, and could win first place in the market. Natural handmade soap seemed to fit these criteria perfectly, as it is relatively easy to process and has a longer shelf life than crops. Donggubat¡¯s soap product was well-received, leading the company to diversify its product line. Solid dishwashing bars, shampoo and conditioners were created, and the company¡¯s decision to avoid plastic packaging helped build its reputation as an eco-friendly brand.

Donggubat has become a model company that addresses both environmental and social issues, achieving a balance between the two. While it is difficult to achieve just one of the ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) factors, Donggubat¡¯s success in achieving both is due to its gradual expansion strategy. The company gradually expanded the values it pursued one by one, rather than trying to address both factors simultaneously from the beginning.

Focusing on Individual Growth

Donggubat¡¯s commitment to sustainable daily life extends beyond their eco-friendly products to their manufacturing processes, which are carried out by a combination of developmentally disabled and non-disabled individuals. Here, the lines between disabled and non-disabled colleagues blur, and everyone works together to create a sustainable daily life. ¡°We treat disabled employees equally without making any special considerations or reducing their workload. Our goal is to foster an environment that allows everyone to grow through recognition of their strengths and honest feedback about areas for improvement.¡±

Over time, these efforts have resulted in significant changes both large and small throughout the company. In particular, the growth of employees with developmental disabilities has been remarkable. Through years of experience and training, they are demonstrating daily growth by quickly and accurately applying the feedback they received or suggesting improvement ideas. This emphasis on individual growth has allowed employees with developmental disabilities to progress from simply manufacturing products to becoming involved in the design process as well.

Core Value: Coexistence

Donggubat¡¯s core value is coexistence, which aims for harmonious relationships between disabled and non-disabled individuals, and between nature and people. In line with this, they use plant-based ingredients and produce vegan-friendly products that do not involve animal testing. Their packaging materials are also eco-friendly, using paper instead of plastic and FSC-certified paper for sustainable forest management.

As Donggubat expands the value of coexistence between humans and nature, consumers are also benefiting from this expansion. More people are becoming interested in Donggubat¡¯s message of improving employment opportunities for disabled individuals, which is introduced through their eco-friendly products.

Donggubat strives to maintain a 50/50 employment ratio between disabled and non-disabled individuals. To achieve this goal, Noh emphasizes the importance of not neglecting the essential aspect of corporate activities, which is the production and sale of high-quality products.

The company¡¯s disabled and non-disabled employees work together to create top-quality products that are beneficial to people, animals and the environment, thus embodying the value of coexistence.