Samsung Electronics, the world’s leading TV manufacturer for 16 consecutive years, announced that its 2022 Neo QLEDs earned the ‘Reducing CO2’ certification from the Carbon Trust in recognition of its efforts to reduce its carbon footprint.

The Carbon Trust is a global climate consultancy driven by the mission to accelerate the move to a decarbonised future. The ‘Reducing CO2’ certification signifies that a product’s carbon footprint is reducing year-on-year. It evaluates the amount of GHG (Greenhouse Gas) generated throughout the entire product lifecycle using internationally recognized standards.¹

This year, 11 models across Samsung’s 2022 TV lineup, including three Neo QLED 8K models, three Neo QLED 4K models, two QLED models, two Lifestyle TV models and one Crystal UHD TV model, obtained the certification by reducing the weight of the product and the power consumption during the use phase.

Samsung has long been committed to not only driving product innovation but also shaping and implementing environmental sustainability technologies. During Samsung’s keynote event at CES 2022, Jong-Hee (JH) Han, Vice Chairman, CEO and Head of Samsung Electronic’s Device eXperience (DX) Division, unveiled the company’s vision of “Together for Tomorrow”, highlighting Samsung’s commitment to creating a sustainable future and driving collaboration as part of the global community to preserve our planet.

As part of the initiative, Samsung’s Visual Display Business is set to use around 30 times more recycled plastics to produce its display products than it did in 2021. Samsung also revealed its plan to expand the use of recycled materials in all of their mobile and home appliance products by 2025.

In addition, Samsung has been adopting various sustainable practices to minimize the environmental impacts throughout its products’ lifecycles. The company’s ‘Eco-Packaging’ program — which allows consumers to upcycle the packaging for TV products into versatile pieces of furniture — has been upgraded this year with product packaging using 90% less ink while also removing the staples during production.

Samsung has also expanded the SolarCell Remote, which eliminates battery waste with built-in solar panels, to all TV models in 2022. Additionally, Samsung has developed and applied a new material, made with repurposed ocean-bound plastics, to a 2022 high resolution monitor S8 to reduce marine waste and minimize the environmental footprint.

“As the market leader for 16 consecutive years, Samsung is not only focused on the technological advancements, but innovations around human-centric technology and the environment,” said Seokwoo Yong, Executive Vice President and Head of R&D Team, Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics. “Samsung will continue to implement various sustainability initiatives and eco-conscious activities in line with its ‘Going Green’ vision.”

¹ Internationally recognized standards such as PAS 2050, GHG Product Standard or ISO 14067

“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)

This week Paris is hosting the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21); one of the most anticipated cross-sector climate summits of the decade. The main objective is to achieve a legally binding and universal agreement on climate change.

As these discussions begin, I would like to express our support for this ambition in line with Samsung’s long-standing commitment to mitigating climate change and improving resource efficiency to protect the environment. I will also be sharing some thoughts on the history of Samsung Electronics’ environmental action.

Our Environmental Origins

The Conference of Parties was established to review the implementation of the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) intergovernmental body responsible for stimulating action against climate change. It was formed at the United Nations Rio Earth Summit of 1992; a major environmental gathering of 172 governments from around the globe, at the same time as the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development.

Environmental professionals around the world were excited about this ambitious action and at Samsung Electronics we asked ourselves what we could do to recognise and react to this pivotal moment.

In response we signed our first Environment Declaration in 1992 and committed to reduce our impact on the environment and tackle urgent problems such as climate change and resource depletion.

Eco Management

So how have we turned this commitment into action?

In 2009 we launched our first Eco-Management plan; setting medium and long-term targets. Simultaneously, we established the PlanetFirst slogan as a symbol of our commitment to providing a better green experience through eco-friendly products, solutions and technologies that benefit our customers’ lives; affirm our shared values; and respect our planet.

Since the launch of Eco-Management, Samsung Electronics has had many achievements.

Below I have listed some of the accomplishments we are most proud of:

• We achieved greenhouse gas emissions reductions of 47% from a 2008 baseline (as a ratio of emissions over revenue) from our investments in F-gas treatment and the increased energy efficiencies of our semiconductor manufacturing processes,
• The energy consumption of our entire product portfolio is now less than 60% of what it was six years ago,
• The Samsung Galaxy S Series recently won the prestigious Best in Product Carbon Footprint Prize from the Carbon Trust for the highest cumulative carbon footprint reduction of 37% since 2012,
• We have been recognised for our leadership in carbon reporting and combating climate change; featuring on the 2015 Climate ‘A’ list.

Looking to the Future

Finally, how do we plan to improve our environmental performance?

In order to further our ambitions we recently established Eco-Management 2020 plan; setting long-term goals to reduce GHG (Greenhouse gas) emissions during product use phase and reduce emissions intensity at manufacturing sites. In addition we continue to implement a large range of eco management initiatives throughout the product life cycle such as; eco-partner certification, eco-design, water re-use, management of hazardous chemicals, green logistics, packaging material reduction and e-waste recycling.

Our business has an important responsibility in the countries where we operate to contribute to emissions reduction, and we have an important innovation opportunity to provide our customers with outstanding premium technology and reduced environmental impacts. We will continue striving towards our Environmental Management vision: “Providing Green Experience, Creating Sustainable Future” and will aim to harness the $11.4 trillion sustainability business opportunity of the ICT sector to build a sustainable future which makes business sense.

In conclusion, I would like to express our support to all Paris delegates throughout the summit.

We are looking forward to seeing what positive business challenges will arise from the intergovernmental climate discussions in Paris that will drive further environmental leadership from the ICT sector.