Water and green tech companies in South Korea

South Korea does not have a good reputation when it comes to climate change. And rightfully so. As recently as December 2023, the country ranked as the 9th biggest climate change contributor in the world despite being home to only roughly 50 million people.

For decades, the economy was built on heavy-polluting industries, notably manufacturing, oil and petrochemical companies. In the 1960s, President Park Chung-hee famously stated that “if you can see factories fuming out gas, it is a sign of advent success”. In 2022, elected President Yoon Suk-yeol seemed to take inspiration from that quote and declared that previous targets of generating 100% of energy from renewables were “too expensive“, pivoting to nuclear energy instead.

While the above paints a grim picture, there are specks of hope coming from the countries’ renewables sector. Sparked by the Green New Deal, an economic reform launched in 2020 to tackle both the effects of Covid-19 and direct funds towards combating climate change, there are a number of tech companies flourishing in the sustainability sector, particularly where it intersects with water management.

Rise of K Water

Behind that charge is K Water, the country’s national agency for water management.

When launched in the 1960s, its main role was to manage all the water-related infrastructure and operations in the country. However, it has increasingly brought sustainability goals into the fold, with technology at the fore.

Its aim to improve the quality and quantity of Korea’s water supply through tech was on show at CES 2024. The agency is increasingly involved in coordinating efforts among green tech companies in the country, connecting them with each other and with municipalities embracing smart city strategies.

Who are those companies? We’ve compiled a list of water and green tech companies from South Korea that attended CES this year and a brief overview of what they do. Browse below or use the following links to jump to a specific one.

List of water and green tech companies, South Korea

• WI.PLAT
• Water Eyes
• ECOPEACE
• Solarinno
• Gen21
• Simple Grow
• CAST
• SMT
• K-WaterCraft
• SCOTRA
• Conalog
• Ino-on
• Gonggong
• AEOL Korea
• RECO

WI.Plat

WI.PLAT has developed a sensor for detecting water leaks. It captures and analyses acoustic patterns and then uses AI to pinpoint where the leaks might come from. One of the benefits of this method is that it reduces how invasive the process of locating a leak might be, therefore saving time and resources.

Water Eyes

Water Eyes offers real-time water quality measurement solutions using IoT sensors. It then pairs that up with big data analysis through a proprietary SaaS platform. We met with Water Eyes at CES – you can learn more about them here.

ECOPEACE

Among other products, ECOPEACE has developed a robot that runs on solar energy and assists with freshwater management. While in the water, it collects real-time data for quality measurement and can immediately deploy measures when it detects pollutants.

Solarinno

Solarinno specialises in water desalination technologies for those that most need it – international aid projects, remote locations and areas of the world where resources like electricity, portable water or fuel are incredibly scarce. Solarinno’s products are solar-powered and can be used both to desalinate seawater and treat grey water.

Gen21

We’ve written about Gen21 at length when we covered its electronic detergent. The company specialises in washing products that are harmless for humans and the planet alike.

Simple Grow

Simple Grow is developing solutions designed to help improve produce production. It has launched a sensor-based electronic plant pot that helps optimise the growing of plans indoors as well as a number of scanners that measure and detect water pollutants.

CAST

CAST has developed a number of eco-friendly sterilisation solutions for food safety as well as water treatment. These solutions leverage predominantly microplasma and oxygen, which in turn aids with carbon reduction.

SMT

More on the luxury side than on the sustainable side, but nonetheless, SMT offers a number of water filtration systems, including the Water N. This packs real-time water quality and temperature measurement, water filtering and UV sterilisation all into one filter.

K-WaterCraft

WaterStation is K-WaterCraft‘s flagship product. It uses water electrolysis and hydrogen as fuel sources to generate and store energy, which in turn can be turned into electricity. As a self-contained power generation system, it has the advantages of easy deployment and low cost (alongside ecofriendliness).

SCOTRA

Scotra has developed floating photovoltaic systems that are ideal for capturing solar energy even in the harshest of weather conditions.

Conalog

Conalog‘s software is all about ensuring solar power plants operate at the highest possible level of efficiency. Its technology allows operators to measure how each individual solar panel is performing in real-time, allowing for optimisations to take place when meteorological variables, such as shade, occur.

Ino-on

Part of being “green” is being resilient. Ino-on‘s IoT sensor is a good example of that – while not being particularly focused on sustainability, it’s being used to measure the integrity of infrastructures, which in turn, plays a critical role in keeping people safe without having to waste additional resources building something new.

Gonggong

Gonggong has developed an air purifier – the Swasher S – that exclusively uses water. It captures 99.9% of harmful gases, ultrafine dust, airborne bacteria and viruses. It has the benefit of being safe to clean and hence reusable without having to replace the filter.

AEOL Korea

The MOForest is an air conditioning system that can cool, ventilate, dehumidify and air purify all in one. It has been designed by AEOL Korea with zero-energy buildings in mind and promises 30% less energy consumption than alternative solutions.

RECO

Last but not least, Reco offers waste management software that aids companies with managing tracking and improving their waste management and their recycling efforts. In turn, the deployment of its software can help with accelerating composting and feed production processes, both beneficial for the planet.