Baek Byung-yeul is a journalist at The Korea Times focused on cultural content, including films and cultural events in South Korea. You can contact him at baekby@koreatimes.co.kr to share your insights.
Samsung takes action to clean up waterways, recover marine ecosystems
Samsung Electronics employees conduct waterway cleanup activities over a 3-kilometer stretch at Woncheonri Stream, Suwon, Gyeonggi Province where the company's headquarters is located on the occasion of World Water Day, March 22. Courtesy of Samsung Electronics
By Baek Byung-yeul
By Baek Byung-yeul
The Samsung Electronics logo / Courtesy of Samsung Electronics
Samsung Electronics has been making efforts to contribute to the protection of waterways and recovery of the ocean ecosystems to solve the problem of water pollution, which threatens humanity and the Earth's ecosystem, according to the company, Thursday.
On the occasion of World Water Day (March 22), an annual United Nations observance day to emphasize the importance of water, employees of the company cleaned up and carried out water purification activities at Woncheonri Stream in Suwon where the company's headquarters is located.
Not only employees in Suwon but also employees in Gwangju and Gumi also carried out cleanup activities at streams nearby their workplaces with local residents. Samsung said the employees meticulously dealt with large and small pieces of litter that were sullying the waterway.
The company's global manufacturing centers also conducted water conservation activities such as river and road cleaning activities around their workplaces, holding idea contests for environmental conservation and photo exhibitions to commemorate this year's World Water Day and conducting environmental education sessions.
“Last year, approximately 110,000 employees from 20 overseas manufacturing centers participated in World Water Day activities, including roadside and riverside clean-ups, water conservation idea competitions, photo exhibitions and environmental education programs,” Samsung said.
Samsung has been working on promoting water resource management and conservation as one of its key tasks for managing humanity's impact on the environment. By reducing water consumption at semiconductor business sites and increasing the recycling rate of wastewater, Samsung is dedicated to building a safer and more eco-conscious future for all.
“As the theme for World Water Day in 2022 is Groundwater, we have an opportunity to recognize once again the importance of groundwater in preserving our drinking water and our ecosystem,” Kim Kyung-jin, the Head of Global EHS Center for Samsung Electronics, said. “Samsung will continue to carry out activities for carbon neutrality in line with its environmental management strategy.”
To contribute to creating healthy oceans, Samsung has been making efforts to reduce marine plastic.
The flagship case of such efforts is to use recycled plastics made from discarded fishing nets in the company's latest Galaxy S23 smartphone series.
Samsung said it aims to prevent more than 15 tons of discarded fishing nets from entering the world's oceans by the end of this year through these efforts.
The company began using plastics recycled from fishing nets starting with the Galaxy S22 series and it has expanded the use case to various Galaxy devices such as the S23, Galaxy Buds, tablet PCs and PCs.
With these efforts, the company received prestigious awards from a number of global institutions such as being named a winner of the 2022 SEAL Business Sustainability Awards from the environmental organization based in California and PR News' 2023 Social Impact Awards.