GHG Management

Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions

Samsung Electronics' total emissions of greenhouse gases have increased in recent years, primarily due to continuous growth in our semiconductor and LCD panel businesses. (Figure 1)

However, as a fast growing company responsible for increasing GHG emissions, The company has committed to reducing greenhouse gases resulting from manufacturing processes and improving energy efficiency in operations. Figure 2 demonstrates the decrease in emissions normalized by sales as a result of the company’s GHG reduction initiatives.

Figure 1. Total Greenhouse Gas Emissions

A graph illustrating total greenhouse gas emissions

Figure 2. Greenhouse Gas Emissions normalized by sales

A graph illustrating total greenhouse gas emissions normalised by sales

* The above amounts of GHG emissions are estimated from the operations in Korea where the majority of GHG emissions (more than 85%) are generated.

Third-party verification

Samsung Electronics currently monitors and controls GHG emissions from all of its eight plants in Korea and 30 overseas production plants. We plan to expand this control to overseas sales subsidiaries and R&D centers.

The company acquired third-party verification by KEMCO of its GHG emissions in Korea in 2007 and 2008. Approximately 90% of total emissions are from operations in Korea.

In 2008, the scope of this monitoring was expanded to include 30 overseas production plants. The operational boundaries were separated into Scope 1 (direct emissions) and Scope 2 (indirect emissions), as defined by the ISO14064-1 and WRI GHG Protocols.

We also plan a GHG inventory covering the entire product lifecycle in order to reduce other indirect GHG emissions (Scope 3). This includes all the GHG emissions by and from our component suppliers, product use, logistics and disposal activities.

GHG Reduction Activities

In 2008, more than 40% of GHG emissions by Samsung Electronics came from PFC and SF6 use in the Korean semiconductor and LCD production lines. As such, we are striving to treat and reduce emissions of PFCs and SF6 from these processes, and enhance energy efficiency so as to reduce company-wide GHG emissions.

In particular, the semiconductor plant entered into the 1999 PFCs Voluntary Reduction Agreement with the World Semiconductor Council (WSC), committing to reduce PFC use in the semiconductor process by 10% from the 1997 level by 2010. Applying PFC treatment facilities and Remote Plasma Generators (RPG) to the vapor deposition process, GHG emissions were decreased by 12,000 tons in 2008.