On July 3, the Vietnamese government issued a decree on direct power purchase agreement (DPPA) that allows enterprises to purchase renewable energy from private producers without an intermediary.

The agreement allows enterprises to sign renewable energy contracts exceeding a certain scale with private producers, not just the state-owned Vietnam Electricity (EVN). Until now, enterprises mainly procured renewable energy through small-scale solar panels on the roofs of their business sites or by purchasing renewable energy certificates (RECs).

With the implementation of the DPPA, Samsung Electronics Vietnam will be able to strengthen the institutional foundation for securing renewable energy.

Samsung Electronics has been tirelessly working with various stakeholders, including the Vietnamese government and civil society organizations, to introduce the DPPA system and put climate strategy into practice. Since the first DPPA discussions began in 2019, Samsung has emphasized the need to introduce the renewable energy procurement mechanism as soon as possible to achieve net zero carbon emissions goals, and provided technical advice on how to implement the mechanism in a stable manner. Samsung has also continued to communicate with stakeholders through the Asia Clean Energy Coalition (ACEC), a coalition of renewable energy buyers, in collaboration with sellers and financiers, to strategically shift policy in key Asian markets, including Vietnam.

“Through the DPPA, we plan to get in touch with large-scale renewable energy producers proportionate to the size of operations at Samsung Electronics Vietnam and make competitive purchases of renewable energy,” said Executive Vice President Joo Ho Choi, General Director of Samsung Vietnam Complex. “We will continue to work with the Vietnamese government to advance Vietnam’s renewable energy infrastructure.”

In order to contribute to tackling this global crisis, Samsung Electronics has been devising sustainable ways to respond to climate change across all aspects of its business operations. Read on to learn more about the measures implemented by Samsung that aim to provide everyone with a better, more sustainable, tomorrow.

Renewable Energy Usage Reaches 100% in the U.S., China and Europe

In June 2018, Samsung committed to having all its worksites in the U.S., China and Europe rely exclusively on electricity sourced from renewable sources by 2020. Thanks to the unrelenting efforts put in hereafter, in 2019, 92% of the energy used in these worksites was generated by renewable sources; and in 2020, the company achieved its goal of 100% renewable energy for these worksites. Samsung’s efforts to use renewable energy continue across various other regions around the world, including Korea.

Solar panels at parking lots in Samsung campuses in Suwon and Giheung, Korea

Across various worksites in Korea, Samsung has installed solar and geothermal facilities for renewable energy production. At the company’s Suwon, Giheung and Pyeongtaek campuses, geothermal power generation facilities have been installed across the campuses’ parking lots, buildings, roofs and new construction sites.

In each of its operational regions around the world, Samsung has developed and is implementing specific regional action plans in order to promote renewable energy usage, including Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) purchasing and renewable power purchase agreements (PPA). Some examples of these region-specific action plans are the signing of a renewable energy supply contract with wind and solar power suppliers in India; the purchase of renewable energy certificates in Mexico; and the specific percentages of renewable energy set for the company’s worksites in Brazil.

Eco-Conscious Products for Everyday Life

In 2008, Samsung Electronics established its corporate Eco-Council and began holding regular meetings across its various business units to support the development of energy-efficient products. By sharing technologies that help reduce energy consumption and follow eco-conscious trends, the company’s many teams have managed to develop products that simultaneously maximize performance and minimize energy consumption. The results achieved through these co-operative initiatives have also been supported by company-wide efforts to develop highly energy-efficient products.

On January 6, Samsung Electronics unveiled its 2021 TV product portfolio at its virtual First Look event, and also announced the company’s latest long-term sustainability programs that include the inclusion of solar cell-powered remote controls and the reduction of product carbon footprints through the use of recycled materials.

Samsung’s 2021 Neo QLEDs will come with a new solar cell-powered remote control that can be recharged through indoor or outdoor lighting, or USB. This innovation will help prevent the wastage of around 99 million AA batteries over the course of seven years of usage.¹

Samsung is also making efforts to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases throughout the TV product lifecycle through the application of recycled plastics. Samsung has been using recycled materials in the rear covers of their monitors and signage and is now planning to expand their usage into even more components across the company’s visual display product portfolio. Through various efforts including expansion of its Eco-Packaging Design to all 2021 Lifestyle TVs and the majority of the NEO QLED line, Samsung’s Visual Display Business is aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25,000 tons annually, equivalent to the absorption of greenhouse gases by 3.8 million 30-year-old pine trees over the course of a year.²

By using Galaxy smartphones every day, users, too, can help protect the environment. Polyketone, a material that contributes to the reduction of carbon monoxide (greenhouse gas), has been used by Samsung on their Galaxy smartphone and tablet products since 2016. Most recently, in order to reduce the product’s carbon footprint, Samsung applied Polyketone to the side key internal brackets of its Galaxy S21 series.

By pursuing a minimal packaging design and changing the materials used throughout the entire product lifecycle – from manufacturing and distribution through to usage and disposal – Samsung’s Galaxy S21 smartphone have received the ‘Reducing CO₂’ certificate from the Carbon Trust,³ acknowledging the reduction of greenhouse gases the Galaxy S21 produces compared to the previous model.

In addition, the company has reduced the standby power consumption of its flagship Galaxy smartphones’ chargers since 2012 to press the problem of power waste. In the year since, the company has applied this environmentally conscious enhancement to the chargers of devices throughout its product range, and is currently aiming to reduce the standby power consumption of chargers to zero.

Samsung’s dishwashers DW80R9950UG, DW80R7060UG

As for Samsung’s home appliances, the mission to reduce products’ energy consumption is ongoing. Samsung’s dishwashers are also energy-efficient. In 2021, the DW80R9950UG and DW80R7060UG models sold in the U.S. were included in Energy Star’s 2021 Most Efficient Dishwashers list, satisfying the criteria of annual energy use of less than 240 kWh per year and water consumption less than 3.2 gallons per cycle for standard-sized models. This translates to 67 kWh per year in energy savings and 387 gallons per year in water savings compared to a conventional product.

In the company’s Semiconductor business, remarkable sustainable progress has also been made. A total of nine key memory products – four DRAM solutions, three solid state drives (SSDs) and two embedded storage (eStorage) devices – have received the Carbon Trust’s Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) certification. In addition to this, the 512GB eUFS 3.1 has been recognized with the semiconductor industry’s first Reducing CO₂ label.

Samsung has also been making efforts towards sustainability right from the manufacturing stage of packaging materials for the Portable SSD T7 Touch by developing an eco-conscious pulp material to replace plastic tray components. By using one-third less tray packaging, replacing the plastic trays with eco-conscious pulp material and minimizing greenhouse gas emissions throughout its production, the company saved approximately 84 tons of carbon.

Receiving Accolades and Acknowledgement for Eco-Efficiency

Six Samsung refrigerator models sold in the U.S. have been awarded the 2020 ENERGY STAR Emerging Technology Award by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Every year, the EPA, through its ENERGY STAR Program, chooses one or two innovative technologies for their Emerging Technology Award. In 2020, the awards recognized six Samsung refrigerator models that successfully met three strict performance criteria: (1) super-efficient compressors; (2) low greenhouse gas blowing agents for their insulation; (3) low greenhouse gas refrigerants. Samsung digital inverter compressors use around 30% less energy than single-speed induction motor compressors, and thus also help contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

The greenhouse effect, caused by increased global usage of fossil fuels, and the climate change witnessed in recent years are two of our greatest threats. Samsung will continue to monitor the ongoing climate change situation and pursue energy-efficient products and manufacturing processes in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote the usage of renewable energies.

The company will also continue to pursue its policies of increasing energy efficiency and minimizing the usage of resources so that its users can rest assured that they are doing their part to help mitigate climate change with products that require low electricity and provide high performance.

¹ 7 years is the average lifecycle of TV products.

² Based on internal research.

³ The Carbon Trust is an accredited non-profit certification body established by the British government in 2001 to award the Carbon Footprint Certification to eco-conscious products and services after a comprehensive assessment of the carbon emissions produced throughout the entire production cycle of the product.

The importance of pursuing environmentally friendly activities for a company on the scale of Samsung Electronics cannot be underestimated in terms of the potential for leading the way in mitigating such global issues as climate change and resource depletion. For this reason, environment-related activities and initiatives lie at the heart of Samsung’s sustainable business practices.

Taking A Green Approach Since the 1990s

Since its Environment Declaration in 1992, Samsung Electronics has been managing its ‘green’ business in order to fulfill its environmental responsibilities understanding that any expense put towards fighting environmental issues is not an optional, but instead a necessary, corporate investment.

In 1998, the company established its own E-Waste Take-Back and Recycling Centers to promote the efficient use of waste products, pioneering this program in the domestic electronics industry. In 2004, the company advanced its development of environmentally friendly products by introducing the Eco-Design Process, an appraisal that assesses the energy efficiency, resource efficiency and environmental damage of a potential product right from the beginning of the product development cycle. In 2005, Samsung’s Environment Analysis Lab was established to put in place a system that keeps track of whether hazardous substances are included or not in a product’s development process, from specific parts and components through to completed products.

As a result of these initiatives, in 2009 Samsung was able to introduce Green Memory, a high-speed, low-power and highly reliable semiconductor solution. If all global servers were to implement the 5G Green Memory Solution as of 2014, 45 TWh of electricity would be saved overall annually, and the environmental effect would be equivalent to planting an additional 800 million 10-year-old trees. Samsung’s Quantum Dot TV, launched in 2016, was the first TV product to not use cadmium, a material found to be harmful to both the human body as well as the environment. Such competitive edges were maintained in the launch of the QLED TV in 2017 and QLED 8K in 2018, making Samsung a market leader in terms of industry innovation as well as sustainability.

Furthermore, Samsung’s Galaxy Upcycling program provides an alternative method for resource circulation by repurposing used smartphones as IoT devices with new functions. Efforts such as this that the company continues to propagate has led to global recognition, with the company winning the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s ‘Champion Award: Cutting Edge’ in 2017 for its game-changing work in electronics sustainability.

Samsung’s Practices on Sustainable Products and Business Operations

Since 2005’s Kyoto Protocol, brought about to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, Samsung has been accelerating its environmentally friendly endeavors in order to help reduce emissions. In 2009, Samsung announced its green business vision and intermediate goals in order to lead global response to this environmental regulation with a focus on low carbon emissions and ‘green’ growth.

From 2009 to 2018, the use of high-efficiency products saw the company reduce its accumulated greenhouse gas emissions by 243.1 million tons. This is equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions of 1.5 billion people’s refrigerator usage over the span of an entire year.¹ By establishing a circular resource economy system, as of last year 54 countries participated in taking back end-of-life products from Samsung customers. About 3.55 million tons of e-waste was collected cumulatively from the take-back program between 2009 and 2018. In addition, an accumulated amount of 220,000 tons of recycled plastic went back into Samsung products in the same time period.

With 216 business bases in 74 countries, Samsung not only works on managing the environmental impact of its products, but also on developing environmentally friendly business establishments. In June 2018, Samsung announced its goal to use 100% renewable energy across all its establishments in the US, Europe and China by 2020, as well as to install 63,000 m² of solar and geothermal power facilities in Korea. In October 2018, Samsung’s U.S. headquarters, as well as all US Device Solution manufacturing plants converted to using energy from 100% renewable sources, and the company’s Slovakian worksites have since followed suit.

Samsung Electronics’ green business achievements over the last 10 years are summarized in the infographic below.

Samsung Electronics published its 2019 Sustainability Report on June 28. The entire report can be downloaded here.

¹ This figure is calculated from the global sales and greenhouse gas emission per product based on the average power consumption of domestic refrigerator models sold by Samsung Electronics in 2018

Samsung Electronics is making a concerted effort in the United States, Europe and China – markets that are well-equipped with infrastructure for the development and transmission of renewable energy – to increase its use of renewable energy. As part of this effort, Samsung plans to source renewable energy for 100% of the energy used for all of its factories, office buildings, and operational facilities in the United States, Europe and China by 2020. In the medium to long-term, the company will seek to further increase its use of renewable energy around the world.

In line with this commitment, Samsung Electronics has joined the World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF’s) Renewable Energy Buyers’ Principles and the Rocky Mountain Institute’s Business Renewables Center.

In Korea, Samsung Electronics fully supports the government’s national strategic plan to increase the country’s renewable energy use by 20% by 2030. Beginning this year, as an initial commitment, Samsung will additionally install approximately 42,000㎡ of solar panels in Samsung Digital City, its headquarters in Suwon. The company will continue to add approximately 21,000㎡ of solar arrays and geothermal power generation facilities beginning 2019 in its Pyeongtaek campus and 2020 in its Hwaseong campus.

With these efforts in place, Samsung Electronics is positioned to increase its use of renewable energy globally to match the equivalent amount of energy created by an average 3.1GW solar power plant by 2020. This amount of electricity is comparable to the annual energy consumption of about 115,000 four-person Korean households.

As part of its extended strategy, Samsung Electronics will also engage its partners across the supply chain. Beginning next year, Samsung plans to work with its top 100 partner companies to help them set their own renewable energy targets, in partnership with the Carbon Disclosure Project Supply Chain Program, which the company intends to join next year.

“Samsung Electronics is fulfilling its duty as a corporate citizen by expanding and supporting the use of renewable energy. As demonstrated by our expanded commitment, we are focused on protecting our planet and are doing our part as a global environmental steward.” said Won Kyong Kim, Executive Vice President and Head of Global Public Affairs, Samsung Electronics.

“We welcome Samsung Electronics’ declaration to expand the roll-out of renewable energy across its global sites,” said Jochem Verberne, Global Partnerships Director, WWF. “This is an important step and we look forward to working with Samsung on further measures to reduce the company’s climate impact across its value chains.”

Further details regarding the company’s renewable energy plans will be available in the Samsung Electronics Sustainability Report 2018 on June 15.

Rooftop solar panels on the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology site in Samsung Digital City, Suwon, installed in 2013

As part of Samsung Electronics’ efforts to source renewable energy, solar panels have been installed in parts of Samsung Digital City, Suwon

Beginning 2018, Samsung Electronics will additionally install a total of 63,000 ㎡ of solar arrays and geothermal power generation facilities in its Suwon, Pyeongtaek and Hwaseong campuses