Semiconductor Sustainability
What Is Semiconductor Sustainability?
Semiconductor sustainability relates to the industry’s efforts toward minimizing its environmental impact and adopting socially responsible, ethical practices across its supply chain. This means reducing carbon footprint and waste, and conserving resources like water and energy during manufacturing.
The current impact of the semiconductor industry
Semiconductors have a major environmental footprint, primarily during manufacturing. For example, 77% of Apple’s total emissions come from manufacturing, with chip fabrication alone responsible for about half of that. Battery-powered devices emit most of their carbon during production, before they make it into operations, while always-connected devices create ongoing emissions during use.
The global semiconductor industry’s energy consumption has more than doubled over the past eight years, increasing from 58,326 gigawatt-hours (GWh) in 2015 to 131,278 GWh in 2023. As chip demand grows, assessing the sustainability of both front-end and back-end processes in semiconductor ecosystems becomes increasingly critical.
Key areas of semiconductor sustainability
Semiconductor sustainability focuses mainly on these areas:
- Raw material sourcing: Ensuring ethical and responsible sourcing of semiconductor raw materials like rare earth elements to minimize environmental degradation and human rights abuses in the supply chain.
Importance to businesses
Prioritizing semiconductor sustainability is vital for:
- Risk management: Responsible practices, like prioritizing supplier sustainability and social performance, can help semiconductor foundries and fabless companies avoid disruptions, fines, and reputational damage.
Steps to semiconductor sustainability
Focus on these key factors to ensure sustainable practices:
- Supplier engagement: Collaborating with upstream suppliers to ensure they follow environmental standards, use responsible sourcing practices, and share data on emissions and resource use.
Industry trends
The semiconductor industry is slowly shifting to more sustainable operations and resource-efficient practices, including:
- Green fabs: Semiconductor manufacturers are building or retrofitting facilities with energy-efficient technologies, advanced water recycling systems, and low-emission processes to reduce environmental impact.
Challenges
Here are the main challenges facing sustainability in the semiconductor industry:
Resource usage intensity
Chip manufacturing requires vast amounts of energy, UPW, and specialty chemicals, which makes it difficult to balance production growth with sustainability goals. Companies must adopt energy-efficient equipment, increase water recycling efforts, and shift to low-impact process chemicals where possible.
Complex global supply chains
The semiconductor supply chain spans multiple countries and tiers, which can complicate efforts to monitor environmental impact, enforce standards, and ensure responsible sourcing. Implementing supplier sustainability audits, mandating ESG reporting, and using traceability tools to track impact can promote accountability and drive improvements in environmental and social performance across the supply chain.
Upgrading facilities
Retrofitting existing fabs with greener technologies is costly and technically challenging, especially given the precision and scale required in semiconductor production. Companies can phase retrofits during scheduled maintenance, seek public–private funding partnerships, and prioritize high-impact upgrades like energy-efficient HVAC systems and low-emission production tools to minimize disruption while accelerating sustainability gains.