At Samsung’s Unpacked Event, the tech giant presented its pledge to eradicate all plastic from smartphone packaging by 2025, Aside from unveiling new devices. Aimed at reducing the waste created during the lifecycle of Samsung smartphones products, the pledge is part of Galaxy for the Planet, the company’s sustainability platform.
By 2025, Samsung hopes to reach several of its sustainability goals, which include, along with eliminating plastic packaging, to incorporate recycled material in all new smartphone products, achieve zero waste to landfill, and reduce the standby power consumption of its smartphone chargers to below 0.005W when a device is fully charged.
“We believe that everyone has a role to play in providing innovative solutions that protect the planet for generations to come. Samsung understands our efforts need to match our scale, our influence, and the magnitude of the entire Galaxy ecosystem around the world,” said Samsung Mobile Communications Business president Dr. TM Roh.
“Galaxy for the Planet is an important step in our journey toward creating a more sustainable world, and we will do so with the openness, transparency and collaboration that drives everything we do.”
In recent months, Samsung has launched an upcycling program for old Galaxy devices, a new tool that helps people manage the energy they use, and pledging to only use renewable energy sources for its Brazil and Mexico operations by 2025. According to the company, their current operations in China, Europe, and the US are already fully powered by renewable energy sources.
In June’s annual sustainability report, the company stated its GHG emissions rose by 5% year-on-year, which amounted to 14.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalence. With said increase, Samsung failed to reach its emissions target for 2020, which would have been a 70% reduction of the emissions it produced in 2008.
According to Greenpeace, Samsung currently uses fossil fuels for 82% of its power needs. “Given Samsung’s scale of business and impact on the overall economies of Korea and Vietnam and its pledge to pursue renewable energy goals in other markets, it has the power to make great strides in Korea and Vietnam by pursuing easier access to renewable energy in the two countries,” Greenpeace said in June.
