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

Samsung Electronics, the world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced that it is being recognized for its environmental reliability by receiving the industry’s first Environmental Product Declaration^* (EPD) certificate in Korea with its 512Gb 64-layer 3bit V-NAND and 860 EVO 4TB SSD.

The Environmental Product Declaration is a national certification system in Korea which recognizes a product’s performance according to seven key environmental metrics including carbon footprint, resource footprint, ozone depletion, acidification, eutrophication, photochemical smog, and water footprint.

In terms of per capacity (gigabit), the carbon emission of the 512Gb 3-bit V-NAND has been reduced to less than half of that of the 10-nanometer (nm)-class 64Gb V-NAND that was certified last year.

An 8TB SSD composed with the 512Gb V-NAND can reduce approximately 240kg CO2 of carbon emission per year compared to a 8TB SSD product composed with the 64Gb NAND, producing the same effect as planting twenty-five 30-year-old trees^**.

“The EPD certification will serve as an assurance to our customers that Samsung’s high-capacity products offer not only cutting-edge technology, but also certified environmental reliability” said Mike Mang, Vice President of Brand Product Marketing, Memory Business at Samsung Electronics. “Samsung plans to begin mass production of 1Tb V-NAND in the future to lead the growth of the rapidly expanding ultrahigh-capacity storage market and strengthen its eco-friendly technology leadership.”

Samsung Electronics seeks to leverage its advancements in environmental reliability to lead the consumer market by exceeding customer expectations, just as it has continuously delivered in high performance and energy efficiency in the corporate SSD market.

Samsung earned its first low carbon footprint certification for the DDR3 DRAM server module in 2009 and had since expanded its environmental certification portfolio across its key products, including NAND flash, LPDDR, SSD, and application processors.

[Table] Carbon Footprint Comparison

^* The EPD certification is developed in accordance with the International Standards ISO 14000s (14025, 14044, 14046). The certification is managed by the Korean Ministry of Environment and operated by the Korea Environmental Industry & Technology Institute.

^** The amount of carbon absorbed by an average 30-year-old tree in a year is 9.36 kg CO2.