With the continued advancement of environmental, social and governance goals, corporations are increasingly focused on reducing their carbon footprints. To accomplish this, these companies are being asked to operate their businesses more efficiently than ever before, whether the matter is reducing waste, water usage or power consumption. This is true for the semiconductor industry as well.
Although semiconductor manufacturing is not a smokestack industry, it is truly amazing just how many resources – from water to materials and electricity – goes into making chips. To better understand the carbon footprint and environmental impact a typical fab has, consider this: based on estimates in a 2021 article in The Guardian, a 1% improvement in a factory’s production capability could save that factory 450 tons of waste, 37 million gallons of fresh wafer and 22.5 million kilowatt-hours of electricity over the course of a year. That small 1% change is a substantial reduction in resources used, one that not only makes operations managers happy but ESG-minded stockholders as well.