Greenpeace rebrands Samsung’s UK flagship store to highlight firm’s reliance on fossil fuels

The Samsung Experience Store on Oxford Street, Europe’s busiest shopping street, got a total makeover after Greenpeace UK activists changed the brand’s advertising, highlighting the lack of commitment from the company to move towards renewable energy.

The activists placed the message ‘We’re failing to commit to 100% renewable energy. #DoBiggerThings’ throughout the store, playing on the company’s strapline. The subverted messages were visible on the shop window, the devices on display, and the spec slips.

The company used more than 16,000GW/h of energy in 2016 alone, of which only 1% was sourced from renewables. This lags far behind other global IT companies which have already committed to 100% renewables.

“The biggest smartphone manufacturer in the world still heavily relies on fossil fuels, despite proclaiming itself as one of the most innovative tech companies. Samsung’s claim to ‘Do Bigger Things’ is in stark contrast to its lack of action to mitigate the effects its massive production has on the environment,” said Jude Lee, Global Senior Campaigner at Greenpeace East Asia.

Despite being only three weeks away from the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in South Korea, the first in history to set a goal of being powered by 100% renewable energy, Samsung Electronics, one of the event’s main sponsors, has still failed to commit to 100% RE.

Samsung has a large and growing carbon footprint but has set very weak goals to reduce its climate-warming emissions and recently announced it will publish its renewable energy strategy only by August 2018.

“Samsung’s delay in publishing their new energy strategy shows their failure to recognise the urgent need to transition from coal to renewable sources of energy. As the company with the largest smartphone market share globally and one of the main suppliers of key components to other major tech brands, Samsung has a duty to take a lead in reducing negative impacts on the planet. Alternatives are already available and Samsung needs to step up its game and act now,” said Lee.

Greenpeace has been campaigning on Samsung Electronics to show its leadership and commit to 100% renewable energy, following the steps of other major IT brands like Apple which have already committed to renewables. Greenpeace is calling on Samsung Electronics to urgently set a clear renewable energy goal for its own operations as well as its supply chain.

ENDS

Notes:

[1] Greenpeace has launched a global petition (available here) asking Samsung to commit to 100% RE.

[2] Details on Samsung’s performance on renewable energy can be found in Greenpeace USA’s latest Guide to Greener Electronics, available here.

[3] Visual materials will appear here: