The AWS International Water Stewardship Standard is a globally applicable framework for major water users to understand their water use and impact and to work collaboratively and transparently for sustainable water management within a catchment context. In the development of the AWS Standard, international organizations including CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project) and the UN Global Compact’s CEO Water Mandate are participated as founding members.

This is Samsung Electronics’ second global certification for sustainable water management. Having met the highest Carbon Trust standard by reducing water usage, Samsung earned the AWS certification for its water-resource management system.

“Through the AWS Platinum level certification of their semiconductor plant in Korea, Samsung joins a growing number of microelectronics companies that are taking credible, verifiable corporate action on water.” said Adrian Sym, CEO, Alliance for Water Stewardship. “As the fourth site in Korea to achieve AWS certification and the first in the country to achieve Platinum status, they are one of the first adopters of the AWS Standard in Korea and join 250 AWS certified sites globally.”

“The AWS certification reflects Samsung’s continual and ongoing efforts to manage water resource, such as communication and cooperation with wide range of stakeholders,” said Dooguen Song, Executive Vice President of the Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) Center at Samsung Electronics. “We will continue taking the lead in water resource management in closer cooperation with the government, local communities and industry players.”

The AWS Standard 2.0 is evaluated based on a total of 100 indicators, including stable water management, water pollutant management, water hygiene, domestic impact of biodiversity and governance establishment. There are three levels of AWS Standard certifications: Core, Gold and Platinum; the greater the number of points achieved, the higher the level of water stewardship performance and AWS certification.

In celebration of World Water Day 2023, Samsung Electronics has also unveiled a special animated ESG video via the Samsung Semiconductor Newsroom’s YouTube channel. The video illustrates a revitalized Osan Stream, restored by a rich amount of clean water discharged from Samsung’s semiconductor site, enabling the return of otters and an improved biological ecosystem.

About The Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS)
The Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) is a global organization that promotes sustainable water use and management through the implementation of the AWS Standard. The AWS brings together a diverse group of stakeholders to collaborate on water stewardship initiatives. Learn more at https://a4ws.org/about/.

Samsung Newsroom invites you to take a tour of these five Korea-based manufacturing centers in the video below, captured via drone for an amazing birds-eye look at the innovative campuses. Check out the video below to learn more.

Samsung Electronics, a world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, today announced that it received the industry’s first Triple Standard for carbon, water and waste by Carbon Trust.

Samsung was awarded this certification by reducing the amount of carbon emissions, water use, and waste discharge over the past three years at five operations (Giheung, Hwaseong, Pyeongtaek, Onyang and Cheonan) in Korea and four global manufacturing sites in U.S. and China (Austin, Suzhou, Tianjin and Xi’an). This is a huge feat, considering that it is extremely challenging for semiconductor manufacturing companies to meet all three qualifications at once.

“For decades, Samsung has been striving to incorporate environmental sustainability into every aspect of the semiconductor manufacturing process,” said Seong-dai Jang, senior vice president and head of DS Corporate Sustainability Management Office at Samsung Electronics. “We’ll continue to pursue more environmentally sustainable policies across the entire production and supply chain.”

Samsung has been making various efforts in carbon reduction, water resource conservation and recycling, and has been managing these as important sustainability goals.

Samsung’s Efforts to Reduce Its Environmental Footprint

• Greenhouse Gas: Samsung has been sourcing 100-percent renewable energy for its overseas semiconductor operations in the United States and China since 2019, and the company’s continued efforts to reduce its carbon footprint also includes optimizing gas use for etching and deposition processes, as well as developing new catalysts for its greenhouse gas reduction equipment. Through these endeavors, Samsung was able to cut about 1.3-million tons¹ of carbon emissions in 2020—about 200 million pine trees would be required to absorb the same amount of carbon.²
• Water Management: Samsung has been recycling wastewater generated in the process of producing ultra-pure water for equipment such as wet scrubbers and cooling towers. The company has also reduced water usage utilizing its wastewater filtration technology—known as the ‘membrane process’ —to reuse water and optimize manufacturing processes. Equipment operation efficiency has also increased by consolidating wastewater reclamation and reuse systems. As a result, Samsung was able to reuse about 70 million tons of water in 2020, a 12-percent increase compared to 2018~2019, and reduce more than 10 million tons of water usage,³ which is the same amount used for two-million people per month in a metropolitan area in Korea.⁴
• Waste Discharge: Samsung has significantly reduced wastewater sludge,⁵ which accounts for more than 60-percent of total waste generation, by applying alternative materials and optimizing the amount of materials supplied to particular facilities. In addition, by establishing packaging standards for products brought into the line, the amount of waste from over-packaging has also been reduced. Through all these efforts, Samsung reduced a total of 35,752 tons⁶ of waste discharged in 2020.

Samsung Electronics strives to incorporate environmental sustainability into everything it does. Samsung’s products are thoughtfully designed to minimize the impact on the environment during their entire lifecycle – from planning and manufacturing to consumption and recycling.

¹ The amounts stated are converted measurements based on production levels

² A 30-year-old pine tree can absorb about 6.6 kilograms of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year (Korea Institute of Forest Science)

³ The amounts stated are converted measurements based on production levels

⁴ Korea Ministry of Environment (2019)

⁵ Wastewater sludge is a by-product generated in the treatment process of industrial wastewater or sewage.

⁶ The amounts stated are converted measurements based on production levels

Recently, nine key Samsung memory products – four DRAM solutions, three solid state drives (SSDs) and two embedded storage (eStorage) devices* – earned Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) labels from the UK-based Carbon Trust for their significant role in reducing climate impact and helping with the transition to a low-carbon economy. These PCF labels were awarded after a thorough review of each product’s carbon impact, from the raw material extraction stage through production, distribution, use and disposal. The PCF certification also provides a reliable measure of the electricity, water and gas used during memory chip manufacturing.

Contributing to a Sustainable Future

The 512GB uFS 3.1 was recognized with the industry’s first ‘Reducing CO2’ label

In addition to the PCF label, Samsung’s 512GB eUFS 3.1 – the company’s latest smartphone storage memory – was recognized with the industry’s first ‘Reducing CO2’ label for eliminating more carbon emissions than the previous generation, Carbon Trust-certified 512GB eUFS 3.0.

The ‘Portable SSD T7 Touch’ is the first semiconductor product to be recognized as a green (eco-conscious) product by the Korean Ministry of Environment

Samsung’s T7 Touch SSD also received a ‘low carbon product’ certificate from the Korean Ministry of Environment (MoE), making it the first Korean government-certified green semiconductor product in Korea. The low carbon certificate is given to products that achieve a minimum of 3.3 percent carbon reduction over the previously MoE-accredited product generation.

The material used for the T7 Touch SSD’s packaging is made out of eco-friendly pulp

By using one-third less tray packaging, replacing the plastic trays with eco-friendly pulp material and minimizing greenhouse gas emissions throughout its production, the T7 Touch SSD saw a 5.1 percent reduction in its carbon footprint compared to the previous generation product. This translates to an annual savings of approximately 84 tons of carbon – about the same amount of CO2 absorbed by 13,000 30-year-old pine trees in one year.

Comparing the packaging of the T5 SSD (left) and T7 Touch SSD (right)

The new certifications are in addition to Samsung’s Hwaseong Campus in Korea having recently become the industry’s first semiconductor site to earn the Carbon Trust Standard for Water, in recognition of its sustainable water management.

“Through the continuous reduction of our carbon footprint, we are committed to improving environmental sustainability across our semiconductor business operations,” said Chanhoon Park, executive vice president and general manager of Global Infra Technology at Samsung Electronics. “Moving forward, we will strive not only to achieve greater competitiveness with our semiconductor technologies, but also ongoing leadership in sustainable environmental efforts.”

* DRAM products: SODIMM 8GB; HBM2 8GB; LPDDR5 12GB; GDDR5 8GB
SSDs: PM1733 U.2 15.36TB; 860 EVO 500GB; SSD T7 Touch 1TB
eStorage solutions: EVO Plus microSD card 128GB; eUFS 3.1 512GB

Samsung’s Hwaseong Campus

Sustainable water management has been at the core of Samsung’s environmental efforts for more than a decade. The company’s extensive water management practices largely focus on the 3R’s ― reduce, reuse, recycle. In order to minimize its water footprint, Samsung consistently optimizes its manufacturing processes and equipment. The company also utilizes water filtration technology ― known as the ‘membrane process’ ― to increase its water recycling rate by treating wastewater and reusing it in utility facilities.

Electro-deionization systems remove contaminants through eco-friendly, chemical-free processes

Concentrated water generated during ultrapure water production can also be reused in utility facilities

Just last year, these efforts enabled Samsung to conserve several hundred million gallons of water at the Hwaseong campus alone. Whereas between 2017 and 2018, the site consumed an average of 13.24 billion gallons of water per year, in 2019, consumption levels dropped to 12.97 billion gallons. This translates to approximately 274.7 million gallons of annual water savings, which is enough water to accommodate approximately 200,000 people in Korea for an entire month.

Samsung also employs a team of dedicated water experts who ensures that its water treatment technologies remain green. As a result, instead of chemical treatment options, the company utilizes eco-friendly processes, such as electro-deionization, and energy-saving equipment to produce the ultrapure water needed to manufacture semiconductors at the nanoscale.

Never content to rest on its laurels, Samsung has pledged to continue to pursue sustainability at its semiconductor sites, and will seek to minimize its environmental footprint at every opportunity.

The wastewater from semiconductor production is treated at the Green Center and discharged into local streams