Sixth, Samsung went to the CIIE, and Samsung promoted sustainable development with technological innovation
On November 5, the 6th China International Import Expo (hereinafter referred to as the "Expo") opened, and enterprises from all over the world gathered for the annual Oriental Appointment. As an "old friend" of the Expo, Samsung participated in the expo for the sixth time this year, with seven exhibition areas set up in a booth of more than 600 square meters, showing visitors the core cutting-edge technologies and products in various fields including semiconductors, displays, mobile, home appliances, and sustainability.
CIIE is not only a trading platform for global exhibitors to showcase and exchange the latest products and technologies, but also to promote sustainable development and environmental protection initiatives. This year, Samsung not only showcased a series of cutting-edge technologies and innovative products, but also set up a special sustainability exhibition area to respond to the call of "Green Expo" and showcase Samsung's latest sustainable development technologies and achievements to the world.
The results of sustainable development are impressive
Walking into Samsung's sustainability zone, a large transparent installation attracted a lot of attention. The installation is embedded with materials that seem unrelated to Samsung products, such as fishing nets, glass, and plastic. But in fact, these renewable materials have already been used in a series of new products, such as the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 and Fold5. Behind this is the story of Samsung's persistence in contributing to global sustainable development for many years.
Samsung has always attached great importance to green management throughout the product life cycle. To promote the sustainable development of the environment, the recycling of resources is an important means. To this end, Samsung is committed to increasing the use of recycled materials in its products and continuing to make a positive contribution to environmental protection. It is understood that Samsung Electronics previously announced a plan to increase the use of recycled materials: by 2030, 50% of plastic parts in Samsung Electronics products will use recycled resin, and by 2050, all plastic parts in Samsung Electronics products will use recycled resin.
In order to achieve this goal, Samsung has been continuously increasing its research and development efforts in product technology. For example, some parts of Samsung's Neo QLED are made from recycled plastic, graphite flakes from discarded batteries. In the new Galaxy Z Flip5 and Galaxy Z Fold5, at least 10% recycled plastic is used, at least 28% recycled aluminum, etc., is used in parts such as the case, volume keys, finger key holders, etc., and the packaging components are 100% recycled paper.
In the field of marine ecological and environmental protection, in response to the problem of a large number of discarded fishing nets generated by fishing and endangering marine life, Samsung has included the recycling and reuse of waste fishing nets into the "Galaxy for the Planet" plan, and uses waste fishing nets in Galaxy series mobile phones as one of the materials for manufacturing parts such as mobile phone holders and S Pen inner covers, and it is estimated that by the end of 2023, Samsung Galaxy S23 series will use recyclable ocean plastic. It can reduce marine pollution by reducing more than 15 tons of discarded fishing nets entering the world's oceans.
In addition, Samsung continues to invest in R&D in the semiconductor manufacturing process, which can extract copper from copper slag to make copper blocks, and extract metals such as gold and tungsten from the dust absorbed by the production line for recycling, and is committed to reducing and replacing materials that may generate a large amount of carbon emissions from the source of product production, and reducing the carbon footprint.
In terms of reducing pollutants, Samsung has developed the Less MicrofiberTM Filter, an external filter for washing machines that can significantly reduce the emission of plastic microfibers during laundry. The filter builds on Samsung's Less MicrofiberTM Cycle, which was launched in 2022 by reducing the amount of heat and energy needed to wash clothes by utilizing Samsung's proprietary EcobubbleTM technology, thereby effectively reducing clothing wear and preventing microplastic emissions. The use of this filter prevents up to 98% of the microplastics released during the laundry process from leaking into the ocean, which is equivalent to 8 500ml plastic bottles per year (e.g. used four times a week), helping more users to participate in the reduction of microplastic emissions and achieve effective and easy sustainable laundry solutions.
From waste fishing nets, to waste plastic bottles, waste glass... Behind these CIIE exhibits, the outside world can see Samsung's commitment and actions to sustainable development in recent years, contributing to the creation of a sustainable future.
The whole industry chain promotes the implementation of green and low-carbon strategies
In the new era of low-carbon development, human society is facing unprecedented environmental challenges, but also contains huge development opportunities. In this context, it has become an inevitable trend for enterprises to promote sustainable development through innovation, which requires enterprises to pay attention to environmental protection and resource utilization while pursuing economic benefits.
Since entering China in 1992, Samsung has taken green management as its own responsibility, practiced the concept of sustainable development, and integrated it into its green product research and development, enterprise production and operation, supply chain management and other aspects.
According to the 2022 Samsung China Environmental Report, in 2022, Samsung implemented a total of 2,041 energy-saving and emission reduction projects among its legal entities in China, saving a total of about 97,000 tons of standard coal and 350,000 tons of equivalent carbon dioxide, which is equivalent to the carbon emissions reduced by 20 million trees in a year.
With the goal of building a green factory, Samsung China actively promotes the optimization of the energy consumption structure of each production plant, fully taps the potential of renewable energy resources, makes full use of the roof of the building, and sets up photovoltaic power generation. In 2022, Samsung's PV power generation capacity in China was about 1.15 million kWh, which is equivalent to the daily electricity consumption of about 16,000 people for a month. While reducing the use of electricity, it also reduces greenhouse gas emissions.
Implemented in Samsung's various legal person factories in China, taking Suzhou Samsung Electronics as an example, the company has ensured the implementation of environmental protection work in the system, established a special energy-saving management leading group, and uniformly deployed energy management; In 2022, the company will add a pretreatment facility for production wastewater, with a treatment efficiency of about 90%, an annual treatment of about 840 tons of high-concentration wastewater, and an annual reduction of more than 3 tons of total phosphorus discharge.
In Dongguan Samsung Vision Co., Ltd., the concept of "green management" is integrated into all details of daily office. For example, energy-saving lamps replace ordinary fluorescent lamps to reduce energy consumption; Online approval replaces paper approval to reduce paper waste; Air conditioning temperature control to reduce energy consumption; Optimization of business trip vehicle routes, unified vehicle allocation, etc. The company also regularly carries out environmental protection publicity and education activities and environmental protection public welfare activities, continuously deepens the environmental awareness of employees, internalizes the concept of green and sustainable development, and shows it in action.
While doing a good job in its own green operation, Samsung China also spares no effort to help supply chain partners join in the work of reducing greenhouse gases and build a green supply chain. Adhering to the core value of "pursuing win-win", Samsung's subsidiaries in China have increased cooperation with local enterprises to promote the improvement of the comprehensive level of supply chain partners and the healthy development of their business, help improve the level of the entire industrial chain and supply chain, explore the safe and stable development model of the industrial chain and supply chain, and strive to build a long-term, stable and healthy cooperation ecosystem.
In order to make the supply chain quality management more systematic, Suzhou Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. uses Samsung's self-developed GSRM (Global Samsung Supplier Evaluation System) and SQCI (Global Samsung Supplier Quality Innovation Evaluation System) to effectively ensure the quality of suppliers' products, and evaluate some excellent suppliers as strategic partners, so as to promote the healthy and healthy development of supply chain partners and achieve a win-win situation.
Taking Suzhou Samsung Electronics supplier Jiangsu Xin'an Electric as an example, it is a private enterprise engaged in the manufacture and research and development of intelligent controllers, and began to serve Suzhou Samsung Electronics in 2003. In order to improve the quality of parts and components of Jiangsu Xin'an Electric, Suzhou Samsung Electronics specially dispatched experts at home and abroad to make special improvements, and went deep into the scene, from concept training to cooperate with the enterprise team to explore the topic and improve one by one, so that the product quality of Jiangsu Xin'an Electric has been greatly improved, effectively reducing the quality cost, improving production efficiency, enhancing the ability and confidence of the enterprise, and truly embodying the core value of "pursuing a win-win situation".
Today, four of Samsung's factories have been selected as Green Supply Chain Management Demonstration Enterprises by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China.
As a leading global technology company participating in the exhibition for six consecutive years, Samsung once again demonstrated its efforts and achievements in sustainable development, in response to China's "dual carbon" goals, and also demonstrated its own commitment and actions to China's environmental protection, and make more contributions to the global environmental protection cause.
