Samsung Biologics, Celltrion pledge major CO2 cuts

South Korea’s No. 1 biopharmaceutical company Samsung BioLogics Co. and No. 2 Celltrion Inc. produced higher CO2 emissions last year than in 2021 due to facility expansion to raise capacity, an inevitability in the process of business growth.

The two companies, however, have pledged all-out efforts to cut such emissions by using electric vehicles (EV) for work and introducing low-carbon boilers.

Samsung Biologics on Sunday said the CO2 emitted from its domestic business sites last year reached 163,993 tons of CO2 equivalent (tCO2eq), up about 25% from 130,867 in the previous year. 

Celltrion, in its first sustainability report released this year, said it recorded 56,518 tCO2eq last year, a 3% increase.

Latecomers to the global bio industry, domestic players have recently expanded their production facilities under a business structure that undoubtedly leads to more emissions.  Samsung Biologics plans to double its capacity to 1.3 million liters by 2030, with four additional plants alone to be built in Songdo International Business District of Incheon.

The company’s emissions in 2030 are projected to exceed 300,000 tCO2eq.

Celltrion is turning from a biosimilar company into a developer of new medicine, and combining chemicals to produce pharmaceuticals inevitably produces direct gas emissions in the manufacturing process.

Samsung Biologics and Celltrion have a strategy to first reduce indirect emissions that can be cut immediately, namely from power consumption. By year’s end, the company will replace boilers at its plants with low-carbon models 6% more efficient that use liquefied natural gas.

It also installed 300-kilowatt solar power equipment on the roof of its No. 4 Plant.

Due to the nature of the pharmaceutical and bio industries, a large amount of CO2 is emitted in the process of importing raw materials from outside. So the strategy is to speed up greenhouse gas reduction by all suppliers of raw and subsidiary materials.

Samsung Biologics by 2050 aims to eliminate 100% of emissions from its supply chain. And last year, more than half of Celltrion’s newly ordered business vehicles were eco-friendly models such as EVs.

Write to Jeong Min Nam at peux@hankyung.com