Despite the unfortunate withdrawal of an individual government from the voluntary international accord on climate change, SEMI and our industry remains dedicated to sustainable manufacturing and reiterates our strong commitment to reducing our industry’s carbon footprint.
SEMI takes seriously our global responsibility to work closely with member companies and like-minded organizations to address environmental, health and safety performance. We are proud to advanced industry agreements necessary for the reduction of energy, resource consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions in semiconductor manufacturing.
While serving as the CEO of GLOBALFOUNDRIES, I was honored to be a recipient of the SEMI Outstanding EHS Achievement Award. As a semiconductor manufacturer, I strongly believed that environmental performance is a mandate that we set for ourselves in addition to being a fundamental expectation of our customers and the communities where we operate. Now, as the head of SEMI, I am doubly committed to driving industry-wide impact.
Significant energy savings and greenhouse gas reduction efforts require close collaboration between chip makers, equipment providers and subsystem suppliers. SEMI facilitates this collaboration through our International Standards and Sustainable Manufacturing initiatives. Working with SEMI Standards Technical Committees, Sustainable Manufacturing Working Groups and other industry bodies such as the World Semiconductor Council, SEMI actively drives productive solutions to reduce our industry’s carbon footprint.
For example, SEMI International Standards S23 and S29 codify performance-based guidelines for semiconductor manufacturing equipment targeting reduction in energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. Extensive SEMI standardization efforts for idle and sleep-mode energy conservation will drive significant reductions in fab power consumption. One manufacturer reports that green mode vacuum pumps alone can produce a nearly 2,000-ton reduction in CO2 emissions in a typical 300mm semiconductor fab.
Our members are at the forefront of innovation that is driving a smart economy. SEMI supports industry collaboration to advance leading edge manufacturing technology; which, in turn, produces intelligent devices essential for clean energy solutions, environment monitoring and the capacity to mitigate the impacts of a warming planet.
A momentary setback in international efforts to address climate change will not change the path forward. I am confident that SEMI and our members will continue to make positive contributions for the benefit of our industry, our environment and our planet.