▲ Visitors wait in line to enter SK’s Green Forest Pavilion at CES 2022

“SK, Your companion on the journey toward Net Zero future.”

With the concept of a “Green Forest Pavilion”, SK & Friends is demonstrating their strategies to be everyone’s “Companion” on the “Net Zero journey” by reducing 200 million tons of carbon, which is 1% of the global carbon reduction target (21 billion tons) by 2030.

The Green Forest Pavilion of SK is divided into four zones: Green Avenue, Tree of Life, Walk to Tomorrow, and Green Playground.

Since the first day of CES 2022, January 5, SK Pavilion has attracted huge attention worldwide. Vice Chairman & CEO of SK Innovation Kim Jun and other top management of SK have also visited SK Pavilion.

▲ Vice Chairman & CEO of SK Innovation Kim Jun (second from left in the 1st photo) and the top management of SK tour around SK Pavilion at CES 2022

Let’s visit the first zone – Green Avenue, which consists four key themes of SK’s strategies to reduce carbon emission: Clean, Safe, Convenient, and Healthy. Here visitors can find SK’s innovative technologies and products.

| Clean – SK’s technologies to create clean energy

▲ The Clean section of Green Avenue zone inside SK’s Green Forest Pavilion at CES 2022.

The first product introduced in the Clean section is SK’s electric vehicle battery. This is the world’s first NCM9 battery developed by SK On in 2019. Made up of almost 90% nickel, it‘s currently the best lithium-ion battery on the market. It has won CES Innovation Awards in 2 categories this year (In-Vehicle Entertainment & Safety, Embedded Technologies), and will power the 2022 Ford’s F-150 Lightning pickup truck. With this product, SK will be among top players in the next-generation battery market, leading the Future Mobility. Electric vehicles equipped with SK On’s batteries can lower carbon by 62% compared to internal combustion engines, equivalent to the reduction of 4.2 million tons of carbon in 2030.

▲ The NCM9 battery cell displayed in the Clean section, Green Avenue, SK’s Green Forest Pavilion

The next in line is SK’s Hydrogen Fuel Cell power pack, which emits no harmful substances like carbon dioxide (CO₂). It has wide applicability in various industrial domains encompassing mobility such as hydro forklift and power plants, to mention a few, because it is distinguished by great energy efficiency, outstanding durability, and low maintenance that obviates the need for battery replacement or recharge. SK E&S has formed a joint venture with Plug Power, a global hydrogen provider, with plans to build water electrolysis facilities and manufacture hydrogen fuel cells beginning in 2024. With the expansion of hydrogen fuel cell mobility and power plants, SK will take the lead in lowering carbon dioxide emissions.

▲ SK E&S’ Hydrogen Fuel Cell power pack displayed in the Clean section, Green Avenue, SK’s Green Forest Pavilion

Following that, visitor will come across Net Zero City, which encapsulates SK’s eco-friendly energy solutions. SK Ecoplant proposes providing environmentally friendly energy circulation systems in cities and industrial complexes, which are free of pollutants and GHG emissions. Renewable energy is used to produce pure hydrogen in the Net Zero City established by SK Ecoplant, which is then used as an eco-friendly distributed energy resource. SK Ecoplant, in particular, aims to provide a Net Zero solution based on a waste-to-energy system in order to develop a sustainable energy supply and consumption system

▲ SK Ecoplant’s Net Zero City displayed in the Clean section, Green Avenue, SK’s Green Forest Pavilion  

In addition, SK displayed SK IE Technology’s Lithium-ion Battery Separator (LiBS), a critical material for electric vehicle battery and SKC’s copper foil, a key material for cathode material for lithium-ion battery, SK Lubricants’ EV fluids (lubricants for electric vehicles) in the Clean section to showcase SK’s electric vehicle materials for future mobility and present its vision for clean energy.

▲ (From left) SK IE Technology’s Lithium-ion Battery Separator, SKC’s Copper Foil, SK Lubricants’ EV fluids displayed in the Clean section, Green Avenue, SK’s Green Forest Pavilion

| Safe – Carbon reduction through EV battery analysis solution and eco-driving

SK is committed to reducing carbon emissions not only by creating and supplying next-generation energy, but also by allowing drivers to properly manage EV batteries and drive safely.

▲ The Safe section of Green Avenue zone inside SK’s Green Forest Pavilion at CES 2022

Battery as a Service (BaaS), a user battery analysis solution developed by SK On based on Big Data and AI, in particular, extends the lifespan of electric vehicles through battery monitoring. SK On intends to employ BaaS not only for electric cars, but also for other prospective e-mobility markets, such as flying e-VTOL. It will also help to reduce carbon emissions by 1.36 million tons by 2030 across all life cycles, including battery production, reuse, and recycling

▲ SK On’s BaaS introduced in the Safe section, Green Avenue, SK’s Green Forest Pavilion 

The T-map given in SK’s eco-driving platform is more than just a location-based route guidance service; it also provides a service for drivers to correct their bad habits through a system that recognizes a driver’s behavior. The T-map from SK Telecom not only ensures safe driving but also helps to establish an ideal transportation culture with the participation of many drivers and the establishment of environmental protection by lowering carbon emissions.

▲ SK Telecom’s T-map introduced in the Safe section, Green Avenue, SK’s Green Forest Pavilion

With tablet PCs and monitor screens placed in the safety section, visitors got the opportunity to experience SK’s technological skills that will assure safety in an environmentally friendly mobility era.

| Convenient – Ultra-Fast EV Charger, eco-friendly semiconductor ecosystem to minimize impacts on the environment

▲ The Convenient section of Green Avenue zone inside SK’s Green Forest Pavilion at CES 2022

When it comes to environmental protection, electric vehicles have long been a hot topic. The 350kw Ultra-Fast EV Charger of SK, which visitors will find in the Convenient Section, can charge electric vehicles at a rate of about 20 miles (32km) per minute. It is seven times faster than the 50kW fast chargers which is most commonly used. Furthermore, SK Signet has installed the most recent Plug & Charge technology in all Ultra-Fast EV Chargers, enabling automatic user authentication, charge, and even payment by simply plugging the cable into the vehicle.

▲ Ultra-Fast EV Charger by SK Signet and eco-friendly semiconductor by SK Hynix introduced in the Convenient section, Green Avenue, SK Green Forest Pavilion at CES 2022

Furthermore, SK makes multiple efforts to create an eco-friendly semiconductor ecosystem that reduces impacts on the environment in all stages of the semiconductor value chain, from the manufacturing process to the product packaging stage for customer delivery.

SK Hynix developed and employed eco-friendly process technologies to safely treat a variety of hazardous compounds used in semiconductor processes. It used eco-friendly technology to build a Water free Scrubber for scrubbers used to treat process gases. The solution enabled the corporation to reduce GHG emissions by 90% compared to the previous year, with the annual reduction volume reaching approximately 2.30 million tons in 2020. Moreover, since the water-free scrubber is designed to use no water, it can save around 79,000 tons of water per day.

▲ SK Hynix’s eco-friendly semiconductor (left) and SK Telecom’s AI processor (right) introduced in the Convenient section, Green Avenue, SK’s Green Forest Pavilion at CES 2022

Sapeon, SK Telecom’s AI semiconductor, is a non-memory semiconductor capable of processing large-scale computing required for AI service realization at ultra-high speed with minimal power consumption, and is regarded as the brain of AI. While many enterprises have previously run AI data centers based on graphic processing units (GPUs), consuming significant power and incurring high costs, adopting Sapeon, an AI semiconductor, allows them to increase data processing capacity by about 1.5 times, consuming only 80% of the power of existing ones.

| Healthy – Smart technology to create healthy future

SK also exhibited the Healthy section to showcase its smart technological capability in conjunction with partners in order to pass on a healthier and cleaner planet to future generations.

▲ The Healthy section of Green Avenue zone inside SK’s Green Forest Pavilion at CES 2022

Happy Habit, a collaborative effort of SK Telecom and SK Geo Centric, is an environmental conservation project centered on the usage of reusable cups to reduce the use of disposable plastic cups. SK Telecom contributes to the reduction of waste plastics, a major source of environmental pollution, and carbon emissions by increasing the retrieval rate and usage.

▲ SK Telecom’s Happy Habit (left) and Halio’s Smart Glass (right) introduced in the Healthy section, Green Avenue, SK’s Green Forest Pavilion at CES 2022

Finally, Smart Glass by Halio in the US, in which SK invested, is a sort of color-changing glass that can vary the transparency of glass based on electrical stimulus, and it is an innovative eco-friendly material since it may improve a building’s energy efficiency by blocking infrared lights. Among different smart glasses for buildings, it provides the fastest color-changing property, the highest durability, and the lowest power usage.

▲ Halio’s Smart Glass introduced in the Healthy section, Green Avenue, SK’s Green Forest Pavilion at CES 2022

In CES 2022, SK advocates for carbon reduction for the Earth amid various future industrial technology! Let us meet the visitors who experienced its outstanding cutting-edge carbon-reduction technologies via Green Avenue.

| Live from CES 2022 – Interviews with visitors and staff at SK Pavilion

▲ Interview with Kim Jun, Vice Chairman & CEO of SK Innovation, at CES 2022

▲ Interview with Myra Smith, a visitor at SK’s Green Forest Pavilion, at CES 2022

▲ Interview with Bozena Nawka, a visitor at SK’s Green Forest Pavilion, at CES 2022

[Upcoming contents] Detailed introduction of the other zones (Tree of Life, Walk to Tomorrow, Green Playground) in SK’s Green Forest Pavilion at CES 2022.