Is Our Industry Moving Fast Enough on Sustainability? By Julia Goldstein, JLFG Communications
Awareness and discussion are only the first steps, however. We need more aggressive action. We need all companies throughout the supply chain to invest in improvements. That will require changes in design, materials, and processes, increasing R&D expenditure. Those expenses need to be seen as investments in the future of the companies, our industry, and society. Looking at Progress As the SCC report and other analyses have noted, energy use is the change that will make the most difference. That includes switching to renewable electricity to power fabs and other manufacturing facilities and reducing energy consumption. Many companies are already doing this. Some goals seem overly modest, however. For example, according to its latest sustainability report, ASE pledges to decrease annual power consumption by “more than two percent” by 2030. We can look at that and wonder why they can’t do more. There’s more to the story, though. In 2022, 87 percent of the company’s facilities used some renewable energy. ASE plans to more than double the percentage of its energy that comes from renewable sources. That’s encouraging, but the starting point is 19 percent. Some companies—Intel, Samsung, and others—are already at 100 percent renewables. But many are far behind that. It will take a lot to get the entire industry to 100 percent. This is merely one example. I could comb through sustainability reports and gather dozens more. The upshot is that companies are doing the work to set goals and report on progress toward them. At the same time, the goals could be more aggressive to encourage revolutionary changes rather than incremental improvements. Are Our Hands Tied? The semiconductor industry faces fundamental limitations in transitioning to renewable power and removing gases with high global warming potential (GWP) from the manufacturing process. Intermittent electricity sources like solar and wind need to be combined with energy storage or other backup sources. Island nations have limited land area for building up solar power. But they also might not be using all the resources available to them. Process gases remain a major source of Scope 1 emissions. There are some applications where alternatives exist and many where they currently do not. Abatement techniques limit the release of these gases into the atmosphere, but they are not foolproof. A small
We continue to deal with a paradox: semiconductor chips are necessary to support digitalization and society’s transition to lower carbon power and transportation. At the same time, semiconductor manufacturing is resource- and energy-intensive. Efficiency improvements are one part of the solution, but they can only take us so far. What does our industry need to do to reduce absolute greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to a level compatible with a 1.5 °C rise in global temperature? The answers point to significant challenges. Are we willing and able to completely change some of our processes? That remains to be seen. Where We Are SEMI’s Semiconductor Climate Consortium (SCC) is bringing the industry together to discuss environmental issues. As of November 2023, 88 companies have joined as members. The SCC’s 2023 report, Transparency, Ambition, and Collaboration: Advancing the Climate Agenda of the Semiconductor Value Chain, outlines the current situation and opportunities for improvement. As the report notes, larger companies have been working on reducing GHG emissions, increasing the use of renewable energy sources, and improving water and waste management for years. Water recovery systems are established throughout the industry and continue to improve. Still, progress is not fast enough. Even if companies achieve their pledged emissions reductions, the industry is not on target to reach science-based targets for a 1.5°C global temperature rise. Absolute emissions are still going up, in large part due to industry growth. They are not forecast to drop until at least 2030. I applaud SEMI for gathering companies to collaborate on sustainability initiatives. Awareness is one of the first steps; the report lays out how things look. Everyone in the industry should read it and consider how their company can address its shortcomings in any of the areas the report highlights.
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