SK Ecoplant Partners with AWS to Realize 'Zero City'

Strategic Partnership Agreement Signed for 'Development and Expansion of Eco-Friendly Digital Solutions'

Park Kyung-il, President of SK Ecoplant (left), and Ham Ki-ho, CEO of AWS Korea, are taking a commemorative photo.

[Asia Economy Reporter Minyoung Kim] SK Ecoplant, the No.1 environmental company in Korea, announced on the 22nd that it has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Amazon Web Services (AWS).

The signing ceremony took place at the SK Ecoplant Transportation Building in Jongno-gu, Seoul, with Park Kyung-il, President of SK Ecoplant, and Ham Ki-ho, CEO of AWS Korea, in attendance. Through this agreement, SK Ecoplant and AWS will collaborate to address global sustainability challenges, including waste reduction and improvement of recycling rates.

SK Ecoplant plans to develop and expand eco-friendly digital solutions and platforms with AWS to realize Zero City. Zero City is a circular economy model where carbon zero and waste zero are achieved. It aims to solve environmental and energy challenges using cloud technology and contribute to resource recovery, energy conversion of waste, and reduction of carbon dioxide emissions.

Through this agreement, SK Ecoplant plans to promote the development of digital solutions and data platforms for the advancement of the environmental industry by utilizing AWS cloud technology and infrastructure. These digital solutions will be built as software-as-a-service (SaaS) so that any global environmental business operator can easily use them in the future.

Prior to this, SK Ecoplant developed an artificial intelligence (AI)-based solution to improve the operational efficiency of waste incinerators and reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other pollutants through cooperation with AWS last year. The solution is currently being applied at four incineration plants under SK Ecoplant, and once completed, it is expected to reduce annual carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 1,600 tons. This is equivalent to the effect of planting about 12,000 pine trees.

Park Kyung-il, President of SK Ecoplant, said, "The environmental industry we pursue is not a simple waste management business seeking short-term profits but a new energy business within the circular economy." He added, "We will advance into the world’s leading environmental company through a new approach to the environmental industry, such as developing incineration plants into power plants and landfills and waste treatment facilities into hydrogen production facilities using methane gas, and export our environmental technology globally."