The Carbon Trust is a globally accredited non-profit certification body established by the British government to accelerate the move to a sustainable, low-carbon economy. Each certification by the Carbon Trust was made after a thorough assessment of the environmental impact of carbon emissions and water usage before and throughout the production cycle, based on international standards*.

“We are extremely pleased that our cutting-edge memory technologies not only demonstrate our capability to overcome more challenging process complexities, but also are recognized for their environmental sustainability,” said Chanhoon Park, executive vice president and head of Giheung Hwaseong Pyeongtaek Complex at Samsung Electronics. “Samsung will continue to create memory solutions that provide the highest levels of speed, capacity and power efficiency at extremely small geometries for end-users worldwide.”

Samsung’s Semiconductor Innovations Enable Sustainable Production

Based on the company’s fifth-generation (90+ layers) V-NAND, Samsung’s 512GB eUFS 3.0 provides optimal speed, power efficiency and productivity to deliver twice the capacity and 2.1 times the sequential speed of its fourth generation (64 layers) V-NAND-based 256GB eUFS 2.1, while requiring 30 percent less operating voltage. Additionally, Samsung’s fifth-generation V-NAND utilizes a unique etching technology that pierces more than 90 cell layers in a single precise step. This allows the chip to have nearly 1.5 times more stacked layers than the previous generation and accommodate a 25-percent reduction in chip size. Such innovations help to minimize the overall increase in carbon and water footprints for each V-NAND cell layer.

Samsung is also being awarded Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) labels for its ‘1-terabyte (TB) eUFS 2.1’ and its ‘fifth-generation 512-gigabit (Gb) V-NAND’ by the Korean Ministry of Environment at today’s ceremony.

Samsung plans to actively expand the adoption of its highly sustainable, high-capacity premium memory solutions into many more flagship smartphones and further strengthen global partnerships for its next-generation memory technologies.

*PAS 2050 for carbon footprint and ISO 14046 for water footprint

[Reference] Samsung 512GB eUFS 3.0 environmental footprint (Carbon Trust)

*13.4 kg CO₂ is comparable to the amount that is absorbed by two 30-year-old pine trees in a year   

[Reference] Samsung semiconductor solutions with environmental certifications

The SSD 850 EVO 250GB received the certification with the lowest carbon footprint per product in the market at 9.327kg CO2, which is less than the amount of carbon absorbed by an average 30-year-old tree in a year (9.36kg CO2).

“Through the EPD certification, we are very pleased to be able to assure our customers that Samsung SSDs not only offer cutting-edge technology, but also are eco-friendly products,” said Un-Soo Kim, Senior Vice President of Brand Product Marketing, Memory Business at Samsung Electronics. “At Samsung, we are proactively working to reduce our environmental footprint, and we look forward to more of our leading-edge SSD products being recognized for their eco-friendliness.”

Samsung’s Ongoing Efforts to Reduce Its Environmental Footprint

Samsung has continuously placed significant priority on minimizing its overall environmental footprint by designing and operating highly energy-efficient production facilities, optimizing its entire manufacturing processes and engaging its customers and suppliers along every step. Samsung earned its first low carbon footprint certification for the DDR3 DRAM server module in 2009 and has since expanded its certification portfolio across its key products, including NAND flash and application processors.

Samsung’s greenhouse gas reduction facility utilizes our proprietary technology for effective greenhouse gas management

In particular, Samsung’s Device Solutions division which manufactures the 850 EVO has set three goals as part of its eco-friendly manufacturing initiatives: 1) minimize the input of greenhouse gases during the semiconductor manufacturing process, 2) replace harmful substances whenever possible and 3) finely decompose greenhouse gases that were inevitably produced.

While these goals present inherent challenges, Samsung Electronics and Samsung Engineering jointly built a facility that decomposes greenhouse gases created during semiconductor processing in 2007. Through continuous enhancements made to the facility, Samsung has effectively been able to decompose more than 90% of greenhouse gases, reducing 1.25 total million tons of greenhouse gases and saving 2,527 TJ of energy in 2016.

Samsung will continue to strengthen its commitment to a sustainable future through a dedicated, comprehensive examination across its processes and businesses.

¹ The Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is a national certification system in Korea for open environmental information. The certification is developed in accordance with the International Standards ISO 14025, 14040s, 14046, 14064s and ISO/TS 14067. The certification is managed by the Ministry of Environment and operated by the Korea Environmental Industry & Technology Institute.