Samsung makes $4.2 billion environment pledge

 

Gallery

By Stuart Turton

Posted on 21 Jul 2009 at 09:51

Samsung has pledged to invest $4.2 billion in green initiatives, as it looks to put the environment back on the corporate agenda.

According to Samsung, over half of the $4.2 billion will go into developing eco-friendly products that contain fewer toxic chemicals such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic and brominated flame retardants (BFRs).

The South Korean company also intends to focus heavily on "greening its manufacturing plants". Indeed, the company is hoping that by 2013 greenhouse gas emissions from its manufacturing facilities will be reduced by 50%.

The move follows a similar pledge by the South Korean Government, which has already vowed to spend $84 billion over the next five years on improving energy efficiency and reducing pollution.

Going green was considered a big issue before the recession hit, but since then many companies have gone quiet on their green promises with HP, Dell and Lenovo singled out by Greenpeace for failing to follow through on their pledges to reduce the harmful chemicals in their products.