The company pledges to get rid of the millions of tons of greenhouse gases it emits every year by 2050.
Much less aggressive than that of Microsoft, which promises more than carbon neutrality by the end of the decade, Samsung’s plan is no less ambitious and is being rolled out in several stages.
Carbon neutrality for all activities
The company focuses its commitment on technological advances as well as on recycling and renewable energies. We can thus cite its desire to develop new, less energy-intensive products, or the increasing use of recycled plastics. Samsung is also showing its ambition to promote the reuse of water in its factories around the world, as well as to extend its electronic waste collection initiative to 180 countries instead of the current 50.
Among all these devices is the development of carbon capture techniques. Applicable to its semiconductor factories, this technology would make it possible to limit the emissions of these installations, and perhaps to store them or transform them into a usable resource. An important element of Samsung’s projects, the ambition is the carbon neutrality of its production chains, while reducing the emission of the rest of the gaseous by-products. Its chip factories and other components are responsible for the majority of the nearly 18 million tons of greenhouse gases emitted by the Korean firm each year.
A global impact
Samsung takes the opportunity to announce its membership of the RE100. Launched in 2014 in New York, this initiative brings together globally influential companies committed to achieving 100% green energy consumption in the decades to come. Thus, the Korean company promises that its DX division, in Korea and in the rest of the world, will consume only electricity from renewable sources in the next five years. It then intends to cover all of its energy needs in this way by 2050.
Kim Soo-jin, Head of ESG Strategy (Environment, Social, Governance) from Samsung, says that as a technology company, it will address environmental issues through technology. This can reassure the shareholders of the company who were worried about the lack of major concrete commitment from Samsung in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. They are not the only ones who can be reassured: the Korean multinational is one of the largest tech firms in the world, having a sprawling impact on the market, and therefore on the climate.
But between the announcement effects and the climatic reality, the gap can be immense. It remains to be seen how Samsung fares in the coming years and decades.
Source : Engadget
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