SK's Chey tries 'planet-friendly ice cream' at CES

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won emphasized the importance of carbon reduction during a booth tour Friday at CES 2023 in Las Vegas.

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won tastes a planet-friendly mint-chocolate ice cream at CES 2023 in Las Vegas on Friday. [SARAH CHEA]

LAS VEGAS — SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won emphasized the importance of carbon reduction during a booth tour Friday at CES 2023 in Las Vegas.

Marking his first visit to the consumer electronics show since becoming chairman of SK Group in 1998, Chey visited a shared SK booth at CES and a food truck outside the venue. He is the only head of a major Korean conglomerate to visit this year's CES.

"We tried to explain how we could tackle the carbon reduction technically, and I'm happy that visitors are interested in it," Chey said.

"I hope people can have more interest in it to actively respond to the climate crisis."

Chey visited the food truck to taste so-called planet-friendly ice cream made by Berkeley-based Perfect Day, a protein company that SK Inc. has a stake in.

The food truck sells three desserts including ice cream and bagels with dairy-free cream cheese.

Chey tasted a mint chocolate-flavored ice cream and asked if the company could bring it to Korea.

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won emphasized the importance of carbon reduction during a booth tour Friday at CES 2023 in Las Vegas. [SK INC.]

"We are currently working with Maeil Dairies and it'll take roughly a year and a half due to the approval process," said Kim Dae-jung, an executive vice president at SK's Green Investment Center.

Visitors to the SK booth get a teal-colored free coupon for the food truck, which was also made entirely eco-friendly using granite.

A total of eight SK companies including SK Innovation, SK hynix and SK Telecom are introducing some 40 carbon-reducing technologies and products at a shared booth at the annual event. SK On is displaying EV batteries, while SK Telecom has a real-size prototype of an urban air mobility (UAM) vehicle.

SK Chairman Chey in December last year announced a goal to reduce the group's carbon emissions by 200 million tons by 2030, which is an aggressive target as it is equivalent to 1 percent of the world's reduction goal.

Chey's visit was unexpected after he canceled all the other scheduled business meetings when one of his closest secretaries tested positive for Covid-19 the previous day. Chey tested negative for the virus.

BY SARAH CHEA [chea.sarah@joongang.co.kr]