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| Park No-hyuck, head of Icheon Environment Team at SK hynix, poses with the Prime Minister's Award for Environmental Protection Merit, Wednesday. Courtesy of SK hynix |
By Baek Byung-yeul
Park No-hyuck, head of SK hynix's Icheon Environment Team, was honored with the Prime Minister's Award for Environmental Protection Merit on July 3, being recognized for his contribution to develop, launch and manage environmental protection measures in chip-production facilities, the company said Wednesday.
Park has been working in environmental management for 17 years and has contributed to the company achieving A-grade greenhouse gas reduction performance in the climate category of the Carbon Disclosure Project and A-grade water quality and water ecosystem management performance in the water resources category, SK hynix said.
In particular, he has helped the company establish standards for environmental management technologies ― such as simultaneous reduction of greenhouse gases and nitrogen oxides ― and obtain the integrated environmental permit in 2021 for the first time in the chip industry so that the company is able to comprehensively manage its emission facilities at the business site instead of receiving permission and managing pollutants individually.
Park has been in charge of checking compliance with environmental permits and laws at SK hynix's Icheon campus and responding to various environmental regulations. Describing his job, Park said many of the tasks he has undertaken were industry firsts amid increasingly stringent environmental regulations.
"The implementation of the integrated environmental management system for the semiconductor industry coincided with the completion of the M16 chip plant in Icheon, and permits had to be obtained before completion," he said during an interview at the company's newsroom.
"It was not easy to establish standards in line with the permit criteria, reflecting the characteristics of the semiconductor manufacturing process and the diversity of materials and equipment that change over time depending on customer demand and industry conditions," he added.
To raise the environmental standards of the company's manufacturing facilities, Park has collaborated with various departments in the manufacturing process. He has applied the most advanced environmental technologies to overhaul the facilities and solve the problems that come with it. Also, the team leader has actively communicated with government agencies and environmental experts to create a unified environmental permit standard for the chip industry.
Thanks to the effort, SK hynix's Icheon plant operates the largest water reuse facility in Korea with a capacity of 94,400 tons a day and a cooling tower reuse facility with a capacity of 10,000 tons a day. Its Cheongju plant has been supplying recycled wastewater starting this year, the first in the semiconductor industry. Through these efforts, the company saved 47 million tons of water last year, enough for the needs of 430,000 people for a year.
"Managing water resources that are used as drinking water for citizens in the Seoul Metropolitan area is very challenging. This is why we are thoroughly managing the water ecosystem and water quality through various efforts such as building a water temperature reduction system and reducing pollutant emissions," Park said.
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