The American giant Intel has engaged to no longer emit any greenhouse gases across all of its global operations by 2040. The company also sets an interim target and assures that it will use 100% renewable electricity in 2030.
Intel wants to reduce its environmental impact
Intel intends to improve its energy efficiency and reduce its carbon footprint. The flea giant unveiled its ambitions in this area and seems determined to work with “customers and industry partners to create systems that reduce the greenhouse gas footprint of the entire technology ecosystem”.
The semiconductor market is up 26.3%
Pat Gelsinger, Group CEO, said Intel will take significant steps to achieve this objective of zero CO2 in 2040. He stated that as “A world leader in the design and manufacture of semiconductors, Intel is in a unique position to make a difference that goes far beyond its own businesses”.
To achieve this ambitious goal, Intel plans to invest approximately $300 million to conserve energy within its facilities. The goal is to save a total of 4 billion kilowatt hours of energy. This is not only a good ecological goal, but also a form of good business sense. The American giant also intends to tackle the climate impact of its entire value chain, upstream and downstream.
A strategy that obliges it to work with its suppliers and customers on energy savings and the supply of renewable energies. The American group is also working with new industrial partners to offer liquid immersion cooling for data centers used by cloud service providers.
Semiconductor manufacturers are big polluters
The semiconductor market still has a long way to go to “clean up his situation”, and CO2 emissions are not the only ones to fight. Chip manufacturers produce a lot of waste. 15,000 tons just for the Intel factory in Ocotillo, Arizona, in the first quarter of this year. 60% of this waste is considered hazardous. Finally, this same plant would also have consumed enough fresh water to fill approximately 1,400 Olympic swimming pools.
The American giant already claims that over the past decade its greenhouse gas emissions were 75% lower what they might have been had the group not taken drastic measures to reduce them. Yet the numbers remain very high. The Intel plant in Leixlip, Ireland, consumed in one quarter the equivalent of the electricity consumed by nearly 60,000 homes in the region. For this factory, Intel already buys 100% renewable electricity but it is clear that there is still a lot to do to minimize the environmental impact of the semiconductor industry.