Every year on April 22, people from around the world come together as one to celebrate Earth Day, an international movement to raise awareness on the importance of caring for our planet. On its 53rd anniversary, the theme, “Invest In Our Planet,” urges everyone to take responsibility for our precious world’s health by taking on more eco-friendly activities. As we face the urgent challenge presented by climate change, LG Display is committed to making a positive impact through eco-friendly products and measures, as well as sustainable water and waste management, as it raises the bar for a greener future. Let’s look closer at how LG Display’s sustainable initiatives are benefiting the environment.
LG Display OLED’s excellence in picture quality and sustainability
In today’s business landscape, companies are increasingly considering environmental sustainability when creating new products and services. LG Display is one company going above and beyond in this regard, as it continues to take a proactive approach that puts its OLED technology in charge of unlocking sustainable solutions that make a real difference.
LG Display, which has been at the forefront of OLED since releasing the world’s first 55-inch OLED panel in 2013, has invested heavily in research to ensure the self-emitting technology delivers superior display quality with less environmental impact. What sets OLED apart from traditional LCDs is that it doesn’t require backlighting, which allows it to use 90% less plastic during production. The company has also been expanding the use of recyclable metal materials during production to 92.7%, a big part of how the company constantly alleviates its environmental impacts and be awarded sought-after labels including the Eco-Product Certification from Swiss-based eco-certification agency, SGS, every year since 2017. It even became the first display company to receive the Carbon Trust’s Carbon Footprint Certification, which measures the greenhouse gas emissions generated throughout its lifecycle.
Leading the way in climate action and eco-friendly water management
On its journey to promote sustainability and reduce its eco-footprint, in 2021, LG Display implemented the Korean renewable energy utilization system so that it could achieve its goal of powering all domestic sites with 100% renewable energy. Furthermore, LG Display is taking steps to shift more than 10% of the demand for electricity at domestic and overseas production sites to renewable energy, which helped slash its domestic sites’ carbon emissions by a remarkable 50% between 2014 and 2022. That’s a reduction of 3.87 million tons!
In addition to renewable energy initiatives, LG Display is enhancing its water management. The company has implemented several measures to reduce its water consumption, such as treating and reusing the water used during production and introducing a reclaimed water reuse system, resulting in a reduction of approximately 130 million tons of water usage (re-use rate of 174%) as of last year.
Leveraging waste management strategies to minimize eco impact
LG Display is focused on building a sustainable resource circulation system, and it believes waste management is crucial to this mission. The company constantly strives to improve eco-friendly waste disposal technologies and waste processing efficiency, with one of its most significant accomplishments coming in the form of its technology that separates film from discarded glass, a breakthrough which has enabled it to recycle all waste glass in other industries since 2017. Moreover, LG Display partners with companies possessing waste recycling technologies to recycle over 6,600 tons of high- and low-concentration waste acid each year. More recently, the company enhanced the display etching process to eliminate approximately 3,990 tons of waste acid annually.
Such efforts have enabled its Paju and Gumi factories to exceed a resource circulation utilization rate of 98%, allowing them to recycle 122,820 of 124,644 tons of the waste generated in 2021. The company’s commitment to resource circulation has not only reduced the cost of waste disposal, but also generated a new revenue stream of KRW 20 billion per year through the sales of waste resources. As recognition of its resource circulation achievement, UL Solutions, a global safety science company, awarded LG Display its highly coveted “Zero Waste to Landfill” verification.
There’s no better time than Earth Day to reflect on our planet’s unparalleled value. Looking ahead, LG Display is committed to widening its cutting-edge lineup of eco-friendly products and technologies and is proud to practice sustainable initiatives such as equipment investment and energy-saving projects aimed at reducing its carbon footprint. So, if you’re wondering what’s next for LG Display, keep an eye out for new developments built for a greener world coming your way soon.
