Samsung Electronics Expands Its ‘Green Chip’ Line-Up

Five memory products successfully achieved carbon reduction certification, with automotive LED packages joining Samsung’s list of products to receive carbon footprint verification, setting the benchmark for future carbon reduction

Samsung Electronics, a world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, today announced that five of its memory products achieved global recognition for successfully reducing its carbon emission, while 20 additional memory products received carbon footprint certification. Samsung’s automotive LED packages also had their carbon footprint verification, a first in the industry for automotive LED packages, further expanding Samsung’s portfolio of eco-conscious ‘green chips’.

“It is exciting to see our environmentally sustainable efforts receiving global acknowledgements,” said Seong-dai Jang, Senior Vice President and Head of DS Corporate Sustainability Management Office at Samsung Electronics. “We will continue our path towards a sustainable future with ‘greener’ chips enabled by Samsung’s cutting-edge technology.”

Five Memory Products Achieve the Carbon Trust ‘Reducing CO2’ Certification

Five Samsung memory products – HBM2E (8GB), GDDR6 (8Gb), UFS 3.1 (512GB), Portable SSD T7 (1TB), microSD EVO Select (128GB) – recently earned ‘Reducing CO2’ labels from the Carbon Trust. The previous versions of the five products had received the ‘CO2 Measured’ certification from the Carbon Trust last year. The Carbon Trust recently also certified the product carbon footprints of 20 memory products¹ by giving them the ‘CO2 Measured’ product carbon footprint label.

The Carbon Trust is an independent and expert partner of organizations that advises businesses on their opportunities in a sustainable, low-carbon world. The Carbon Trust also certifies the environmental footprint of organizations, supply chains and products.

The Reducing CO2 label certifies that a product’s carbon emission has decreased. Samsung was able to cut the carbon emission of the five memory products through enhanced production efficiency. This means that less electricity and raw materials were used per chip. For the Portable SSD T7 (1TB), Samsung used environmentally sustainable paper instead of plastic as packaging material to minimize the carbon footprint of the product.

Samsung estimates that the volume of carbon emissions reduced from the five products, after their release until July 2021, amounts to approximately 680,000 metric tons of CO2, which is equivalent to 11.3 million urban tree seedlings grown for ten years or the greenhouse gas emitted from 149,000 cars driven for one year.

Before a product can be certified for carbon reduction, its current carbon footprint must be validated in order to set the starting line for measuring carbon footprint changes. The CO2 Measured label verifies the current carbon emission of the product with a globally recognized specification (PAS 2050). Thus, the 20 Samsung memory products with the CO2 Measured label has now set the benchmark for future carbon reduction.

“We have certified five of Samsung’s memory chip products with the CO2 Reducing label, and are pleased to bring on board 20 more products with the CO2 Measured label,” said Hugh Jones, Managing Director at the Carbon Trust Advisory. “We hope that Samsung’s efforts could spread out to the entire semiconductor industry, so that the industry can continue its journey towards a more sustainable future.”

Carbon Footprint of C-series 3W Automotive LEDs Verified by UL

Four C-series 3W Automotive LED packages manufactured by Samsung – Gen3 (third generation) 3W White, Gen3 3W Amber, Gen2 (second generation) 3W White and Gen2 3W Amber – received verification of their carbon footprint to ISO 14064-3 by UL.

UL, the global safety science leader, provides testing, inspection and certification, advisory and risk management services, decision-making tools, training and business intelligence offerings to help customers based in more than 100 countries solve critical business challenges, achieve sustainability goals and prepare for future opportunities.

Since Samsung’s C-series 3W Automotive LED packages are energy efficient products that draw less power but produces more light output, they reduce carbon emissions of cars by improving energy efficiency and ensure longer driving range for electric vehicles in a single charge.

“UL congratulates Samsung for pursuing carbon footprint verification for their four C-series 3W Automotive LED packages, which will help automotive manufacturers select products with transparent, verified information about their environmental footprint,” said Doug Lockard, Vice President and General Manager of UL’s Retail and Consumer Products group. “By understanding the carbon impact of products, manufacturers like Samsung can work to reduce those impacts and improve the environmental performance of products over time.”

¹ SODIMM (8GB/16GB), LPDDR5 (8GB/12GB/16GB), RDIMM (16GB/32GB), 980 PRO SSD (250GB/500GB/1TB/2TB), HBM2E (16GB), GDDR6 (16Gb), UFS 3.1 (128GB/256GB), microSD EVO Select (64GB/256GB/512GB), Portable SSD T7 (500GB/2TB)