Every year, judged by a panel of sustainability and environmental, social and governance (ESG) experts, the SEAL Awards recognizes the most impactful sustainability initiatives and top companies that drive environmental progress. Samsung is a recipient of the SEAL Sustainable Product Award, which honors inspiring purpose-built products that move and change the world in a better way.

“We are honored to receive the 2022 SEAL Sustainable Product Award for our efforts to advance more circular product designs and by doing more with less when it comes to ocean plastic waste,” said Sungsun Park, EVP and Head of Mechanical R&D Team of MX Business at Samsung Electronics. “Samsung is committed to continuing our sustainability journey and unleashing the company’s scale, innovation and spirit of open collaboration to deliver even more tangible climate actions.”

“A staggering 640,000 tons of fishing equipment are abandoned in the ocean each year, trapping and entangling marine life and damaging coral reefs. We applaud Samsung for transforming the Galaxy smartphone series to combat this environmental challenge,” said Matt Harney, Founder of SEAL Awards.

Discarded fishing nets are one of the most widespread and invasive ocean-bound plastics that pose a serious threat to marine life and our planet. Samsung first incorporated recycled discarded fishing nets with the Galaxy S22 series and since then, has used the material in designs throughout the Galaxy ecosystem, including in tablets, laptops and earbuds. By collaborating with like-minded organizations, Samsung created a new material from recycled ocean-bound plastic and upheld its high-quality standards.

This innovation is part of Samsung MX’s sustainability vision, Galaxy for the Planet, which outlines the company’s journey to taking tangible climate actions across global business operations and product lifecycles. Through Galaxy for the Planet, Samsung strives to develop and incorporate recycled materials in all new products, eliminate single-use plastics in mobile packaging, achieve zero standby power consumption for all smartphone chargers and divert all waste from landfill by 2025.

About the SEAL Awards
SEAL (Sustainability, Environmental Achievement & Leadership) Awards is an environmental advocacy organization that honors leadership through our business sustainability awards & environmental journalism awards while funding research and pursuing our own environmental impact campaigns.

The SEAL Awards’ core pillars are:

• Business Sustainability Awards — honors the most sustainable companies in the world, like Adidas, AMD, Cisco and Tide
• Environmental Journalism Awards — representative past winners include journalists from Guardian, New York Times and Grist
  
• Impact Campaigns — representative campaigns include “#UpTheCup” and “Eco Rewards”
• Environmental Research Grants
  

For more information, please visit https://sealawards.com/.

The Champion Award was presented to Samsung because of its use of sustainable materials in the Samsung Galaxy S6, and is the only mobile phone recognized by the EPA’s SMM program. The Samsung Galaxy S6 is 99.9 percent recyclable and comes in 100 percent recycled packaging. Additionally, the phone’s charger is made partially out of recycled plastic, and soy-bean ink is used to print the materials included with the smartphone.

The second award for e-waste leadership honors Samsung’s long-term commitment to the proper disposal and recycling of e-waste in the United States. In 2014, Samsung collected over 114 million pounds of e-waste in the U.S., one of the world’s biggest collectors of e-waste. Samsung is being recognized for the company’s robust voluntary collection network, as well as for the recycler audits the company conducts to confirm e-Stewards® compliance.

“As one of the two SMM Electronics Champion award winners, Samsung Electronics has shown exceptional leadership and innovation in the sustainable management of electronics and for demonstrating significant environmental, social and economic outcomes that go above and beyond the requirements of the SMM Electronics Challenge,” said Mathy Stanislaus, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Land and Emergency Management. “I salute congratulate Samsung for their innovative efforts to divert electronics from landfills and recover valuable resources, and for its vision to make the Galaxy S6 mobile phone, its packaging, and its accessories meet high environmental standards while maintaining its status as a high-end product and I encourage others to follow their lead by implementing these best practices.”

“We are honored by the EPA’s acknowledgement of Samsung’s efforts in sustainability and e-waste leadership,” said Mark Newton, director of corporate environmental and regulatory affairs. “It has been a company-wide focus to grow our recycling and sustainable programs, and it is wonderful to be recognized for doing great work that helps preserve the environment.”

The awards were presented to Samsung today at a ceremony that was attended by representatives of the EPA’s Office of Land and Emergency Management, General Services Administration, and the Department of Energy.