Samsung Electronics to join global efforts to combat climate change with announcing new environmental strategy
The new environmental policy that was launched by Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a comprehensive initiative to join efforts being made all around the world to address climate change. This includes making commitments to achieve zero net carbon dioxide emissions throughout the company and making plans to use more renewable energy. Additionally, the company plans to invest in and research new technologies to develop energy-efficient products, increase the circularity of used water, and develop technology for carbon detection and capture.
Achieving net zero carbon emissions (Scope 1 and Scope 2) for all operations in the Device eXperience (DX) division by the year 2030 and in all global operations, including the Device Solutions (DS) division by the year 2050 is at the heart of the new initiative. The DX division is comprised of businesses that are involved in consumer electronics, such as Mobile EXPerience, Visual Display, Digital Appliances, Networks, and Health and Medical Equipment. On the other hand, the DS
Additionally, Samsung Electronics has joined RE100, a global project that is dedicated to the use of renewable energy in its entirety. As part of this promise, the firm intends to meet the demand for electricity in all foreign markets in which it operates, with the exception of Korea, using only renewable sources of energy over the next five years.
“One of the most significant concerns facing our generation is the climate crisis. The results of inaction are incomprehensible and call for the participation of all of us, including businesses and governments. “Samsung is responding to the threats of climate change with a comprehensive plan that includes reducing greenhouse gas emissions, new sustainability practices, and developing innovative technologies and products that are better for our planet,” said Yong-Hee Han, vice president and CEO of Samsung Electronics. The plan also includes new sustainability practices and the development of innovative technologies and products that are better for our planet.
In addition, as part of its commitment to protecting the environment, Samsung Electronics is making efforts across the entire company to improve the circularity of resources throughout the entirety of the product life cycle, beginning with the procurement of raw materials and continuing through recycling and disposal. Additionally, the plan outlines investments in new technologies with the goals of lowering process gas emissions as well as the amount of energy required to produce consumer goods. Additionally, the organization intends to investigate several technological avenues for the purpose of carbon capture and usage as well as the elimination of hazardous airborne particles.
Samsung Electronics will invest more than 5 trillion euros in its environmental initiatives by the year 2030. These initiatives include reducing process gases, conserving water, increasing electronic waste collection, and reducing harmful shows. Samsung Electronics recognizes the need for innovative approaches to the sustainability of the environment. The quantity of the investment does not take into account the costs that are related with the increased use of renewable energy sources.
The year 2050 will not see “net zero” direct or indirect carbon emissions.
According to data from 2021, Samsung Electronics intends to reach “net zero” direct and indirect carbon emissions by the year 2050, while the DX Division is on track to meet this target by the year 2030 of emissions equivalent to 17 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e).
In order to give a boost to these initiatives, Samsung Electronics is planning to make significant investments in forward-thinking manufacturing plant technologies that cut down on carbon emissions. By the year 2030, the business intends to implement processing facilities on its semiconductor production lines in addition to developing new technologies that will considerably cut the generation of process gases, which are a byproduct of the fabrication of semiconductors. The utilization of waste heat will continue to be expanded at Samsung Electronics, and the company is looking into the possibility of adopting electric heat sources in order to minimize its reliance on LNG boilers.
For South West Asia and Vietnam, the target date for matching power use with renewable energy is 2022; for Central and Latin America, the target date is 2025; and for Southeast Asia, CIS, and Africa, the target date is 2027. In addition, Samsung Electronics intends to move toward expanding renewable power purchase agreements in the United States of America, China, and Europe, all of which have already linked their electricity consumption with renewable energy sources (PPAs).
Products with extremely low resource use and closed-loop resource management
The promise that Samsung Electronics has made to contribute to a healthier planet includes ensuring that its products are more energy efficient and use less electricity, and that the entire life cycle of the product is more environmentally friendly, from the procurement of raw materials to the disposal and recycling of waste.
semiconductors with extremely low power consumption and other electronic goods with high energy efficiency
Samsung Electronics intends to leverage emerging low-power technologies in order to cut down on the amount of power that is consumed by typical consumer electronics. This includes the creation of brand new ultra-low power memory chips with the goal of reducing the annual energy consumption of memory products used in data centers and mobile devices by a significant amount by the year 2025 compared to the consumption of current memory products.
The company will also implement low-power technologies in the primary models of seven consumer electronics products, including smartphones, refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners, televisions, monitors, and personal computers, with the goal of lowering the level of energy consumption by an average of 30 percent in 2030 compared to products with the same specifications in 2019, by the year 2030.
In the not too distant future, Samsung Electronics plans to establish medium-term and long-term goals for lowering emissions throughout its value chain (Scope 3). In addition to this, it will place an emphasis on innovative strategies for lowering emissions in areas such as supply chains, logistics, and the circularity of resources, and it will assist suppliers in determining their emissions targets and making steps to lower those targets.
Increasing the degree to which resources can be reused across the entirety of the product’s life cycle
To get things started, we need to take a fresh look at how we use natural resources in product development. A new circular economy lab has been established by Samsung Electronics with the mission of conducting extensive research on various material recycling technologies and resource extraction processes derived from waste. The ultimate objective of this research is to implement these technologies in order to increase resource circularity. In addition, Samsung intends to set up a system by the year 2030 that will allow the minerals that are taken from all of the waste batteries that are collected to be repurposed.
Additionally, the corporation has set a goal that by the year 2030, fifty percent of the plastic used in the production of its goods will contain recycled resin, and by the year 2050, this percentage will have increased to one hundred percent. The success that has been witnessed with the Galaxy Z Fold4 will soon be extended to new products, since the Galaxy Z Fold4 has already been developed to integrate plastic recycled from abandoned fishing nets and other forms of marine trash.
To address the issue of post-use sustainability, Samsung Electronics intends to increase the number of countries in which its electronic trash collection system is active from the current range of roughly 50 to approximately 180 by the year 2030. Because of this, the organization intends to collect a total of 10 million tons of electronic waste between the years 2009 and 2030, which is the most ambitious target in the business, and simultaneously a total of 25 million tons by the year 2050. An upgrade program that takes in used cellphones and repurposes them for various applications, such as Internet of Things (IoT) devices, will also be extensively promoted by the corporation.
Pollutant treatment and water conservation are two of our top priorities.
The company intends to recover the same amount of water that it consumes by the year 2030 through water recovery projects such as improving water quality and recovering sources. This plan will be implemented for the DX division of the company. It will promote water reuse by improving water treatment facilities.
During this time, the DS division is working towards the implementation of new technologies that will remove the air and water pollutants that are produced during the manufacturing process of semiconductors and treat them before they are released into the environment to ensure that they have almost no additional impact on life. towards the middle of the year 2040.
By the year 2025, Samsung Electronics intends for the entirety of its global operations to be awarded the platinum level of zero-waste-to-landfill certification, which is provided by Underwriters Laboratories (UL), a global organization that is responsible for issuing safety certifications.
For a more sustainable future, investments should be made in the research and development of innovative technology.
In September 2021, the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT) became the first organization in the semiconductor industry to establish an institute dedicated to carbon capture research. This institute was housed within the SAIT. The primary objective of the Institute is to discover, develop, and commercialize technologies for carbon capture and utilization that will make it possible to sequester carbon that is produced by industrial semiconductor facilities and transform it into a resource that can be used. After the year 2030, the technologies that are produced by the Institute will initially be implemented in semiconductor production lines, and after that, they will be implemented in other parts of the corporation as well as its suppliers.
Additionally, the corporation intends to create clean air technologies such as new filtration systems to cut down on particulate matter, with the goal of expanding their use in local communities beginning in the year 2030.
In addition, Samsung Electronics intends to seek out new businesses that are developing novel environmentally friendly technology and invest in those businesses. Through its C-Lab, an internal program for venture incubation and an external program for start-up acceleration, the corporation is also dedicated to the cultivation of ideas and the support of projects that are relevant to climate change.
Responsibility as well as the tracking of advancement
The results of Samsung will be checked by the entities with the appropriate permissions in order to make certain that the specified requirements are met. The performance will be evaluated by participation in the certification system offered by the Samsung Institute of EHS Strategy, and it will be validated by a Carbon Reduction Verification Committee, which is comprised of specialists from other organizations.
The company will monitor progress and ensure robust implementation through the Sustainability Council, which will be chaired by the CEO, and the Sustainability Committee, which will be composed of external directors. The company has developed implementation plans for each envisaged environmental goal, including goals to promote a circular economy and achieve net zero emissions.