Corporate
A Sustainable Look Beyond COP: How Technology is Cutting Carbon Emissions
12/19/2023
As a global leading technology company, Samsung has been committed to sustainability for over 30 years. As a way to showcase our commitment to the environment, and our great work with both government and non-profit partners we hosted DC outlet, The Hill on a series of panels showcasing the commitment the U.S. government and non-profits are making toward reducing energy emissions post the COP-28 summit in Dubai. Below is a summary of the conversation between Samsung’s Head of Sustainability, Mark Newton and The Hill’s Joe Ruffolo:
JOE RUFFOLO, GENERAL MANAGER, THE HILL: Morning. Mark, thank you so much for being here today.
MARK NEWTON, HEAD OF CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY, SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS AMERICA: Good morning, Joe. Thanks for the opportunity. Sure.
RUFFOLO: Why don’t we just jump right in. Tell us a little bit about what Samsung’s doing for its strategy around sustainability and what some of your goals are.
NEWTON: Sure. So sustainability is a business imperative. You know, if you think about it, our business is a three-legged stool, right? We’re focused on the financial health of our business. We’re focused on our customers and our employees, and we also have to be focused on things like social and environmental responsibility that are, let’s say, externalities that maybe are, aren’t very well characterized. If we don’t focus on all of those three very carefully, we’re not going to be able to sit on the stool, right? So, sustainability is a big part. The other part for us is we’re an innovation engine, and sustainability for us is really a lens for innovation. It helps us to develop breakthrough products we try to focus on sustainability without any compromise in terms of performance. Our north star approach towards this is a commitment to net zero carbon by 2050 for our entire business worldwide. That sounds pretty far out there, but for a company like ours, as diverse as ours with semiconductors and consumer electronics, it’s really, I think, a very challenging target. And we’ve pulled that date in 2023 for our consumer electronics business, which are a lot of the products that you all know. So production of our networking, our consumer electronics, our display business, our mobile products, and the home appliances, including the most efficient home appliances, which are now hopefully going to be available to consumers even more broadly through the Inflation Reduction Act incentives, are all part of this commitment.
RUFFOLO: Great. Can you share more about Samsung’s sustainability efforts and how other companies can take note and hold themselves accountable as well?
NEWTON: I think that what’s really important and how it works for us is not to lose sight of the G in ESG. The G, which stands for governance, is critical. Being able to set very clear goals, having accountability towards those goals, and robust sensing mechanisms for how those things are going and corrective actions. That’s true in our own operations as well as in our supply chain. Another really important aspect is partnerships and collaboration. Events like this, when we use our voice together with other policy advocates, are the tip of the spear. Building trust for is crucial to being successful, and to credibly engage our customers. That brings into the last piece, which is really a customer focus: delivering our products without compromise.
RUFFOLO: How does the energy efficiency of tech products really contribute to climate mitigation?
NEWTON: It’s as much the stuff that you see as the stuff you don’t see. Think about all the semiconductors and memory products that we build, that go into all of the products you use. We don’t really even think about what’s inside of them, the memory products that are powering the cloud that are enabling, AI, 5G, the network equipment that is connecting our country’s underserved communities. These are all things that are in the background, yet they contribute to a much larger positive impact. The industries that are served by these products, such as the cloud, storage, industrial and agriculture sectors benefit from our efficiencies in terms of climate impact. We’re helping to drive efficiencies through our consumer products as well, all with the goal of trying to make efficiency as ubiquitous and invisible as possible for the consumer. We design efficiency across all price points. It shouldn’t just be on the ones with the highest margins and the flagship products. That’s our philosophy, and that’s what helps us to drive our product roadmap.