Intel Sustainability: Waste Management of E-Waste

Environmental Sustainability

At Intel, they continually strive to improve their operations and minimize their impact on the environment. In their view, a commitment to sustainability requires a broad portfolio of efforts; they pursue new ways to reduce emissions and improve energy management through conservation, renewable energy, efficient building design, and other efforts. Intel puts a lot of effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption, water use and waste generation. They have invested in a number of conservation projects and have set targets to be followed by the entire company in order to meet this goal (Corporate Responsibility Report, Intel, 2017).

Strategy and Management Approach

Intel’s goal is to reduce energy consumption, water use and waste generation to lower the environmental footprint as the company grows. They partner with governments, other leading companies and nonprofits to address environmental challenges. To guide their sustainability strategy and to set goals, they follow the Intel Code of Conduct, Climate Change Policy, Water Policy, and Environmental, Health, and Safety Policy. These all constitute of a number of environmental laws, standards, requirements and policies which apply to their worldwide business operations, practices and products. They mainly cover the following factors:

• Conservation of energy, water, raw materials and other natural resources
• Material and waste management.
• Complying with environmental, health and safety requirements

Governance and Management

Intel manufactures the majority of their products in their own wafer fabrication facilities, resulting in a more direct environmental footprint as compared to their competitors. This helps Intel to consider the environmental impact at every step of their processes. Intel has been complying with and maintaining the ISO 14001 registration, Environmental, health and safety (EHS) program and ISO 5001 Energy Management standards to assess their energy management and efficiency strategies. Intel annually reports its emissions, waste transfers off-site, and treatment of reportable chemicals in the U.S., in accordance with state and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations (CSR, Intel, 2017).

Intel participates in organizations such as the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES), the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE), and the Alliance to Save Energy. It also works with the U.S. Green Building Council, which aims to expand the number of manufacturers implementing green building practices. The company also involves its employees by rewarding them for innovative projects which reduce environmental impacts under Intel Environmental Excellence Awards (EEAs) (CSR, Intel, 2017).

Climate and Energy

Intel aims to reduce their climate footprint resulting from their operations by investing in alternative energy and smarter technologies. They increase their climate handprint by helping other sectors reduce their footprints. They also work with others to improve industry and policy. Since 2008, Intel has almost successfully achieved its goal for energy conservation, by investing more than $175 million in energy conservation projects, saving about 3.9 billion kWh of energy (Intel Climate Change Policy Statement, 2017). They plan to reach their goal by 2020. In the year 2017, Intel successfully completed 189 projects which resulted in saving 142 million kWh of electricity (CSR, Intel, 2017).

Additionally, Intel has installed more than 60 on-site projects that use solar, wind, fuel cell, and other alternative energy sources worldwide (Intel Climate Change Policy Statement, 2017). 100% of the power used by Intel in U.S. and European Union is green power, which equals to 73% of their global power use. In total Intel has purchased approximately 27 billion kWh of green power since 2008 (CSR Intel, 2017). Since 2008, Intel has remained the largest voluntary purchaser of green power in the United States (Intel Climate Change Policy Statement, 2017).

GHG Emissions

As a leading manufacturer of semiconductors, Intel has to make use of a number of critical chemicals, which often include fluorinated gases, i.e., the greenhouse gases. Recognizing the effect of their GHG emissions and its concerning effect on climate change however, Intel has set goals to reduce these emissions. Intel has since far exceeded their initial goal of reducing industry emissions by 10% to beyond 50% at the end of 2010 (Intel Climate Change Policy Statement, 2017). Their current goal is to reduce the GHG emissions by 10% from 2010 levels by the year 2020 (CSR Intel, 2017).

They have been collaborating with others as well to reduce emissions in semiconductor industry. In 1990s, they eliminated the use of Class 1 ozone depleting substances in their manufacturing and have greatly reduced the use of fluorinated gases in semiconductor production since then. By using thermal oxidizers and wet scrubbers, they have also reduced the emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), hazardous air pollutants (HAPs), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and carbon monoxide (CO). From year 2012, they have invested more than $185 million for the completion of energy conservation projects. They apply energy efficient solutions while upgrading their facilities. They have achieved remarkable success in reducing fossil fuel usage (used for heating their cleanrooms) by using large-scale heat recovery chillers or heat pumps (CSR Intel, 2017).

Water Management

Semiconductor manufacturing processes use a considerable amount of water. As a result, Intel is committed to conservation of water for its own use as well as for the community (Intel Water Policy, 2010) Since 1998 Intel has invested more than $237 million in water conservation projects at their facilities (CSR Intel, 2017). Intel’s goal is to restore 100% of their global water use by 2025. As of now Intel treats and returns about 80% of their global water use to the communities and watersheds (Restore Water Goal,2018). Till 2017 their overall water conservation efforts have resulted into saving over 60 billion gallons of water, enough to sustain over 500,000 U.S. homes. In the year 2017 they have estimated to have saved over 3.5 billion gallons of water. Intel has claimed that the new projects installed in 2017 will help save around 1.3 billion gallons annually, once operational (CSR Intel, 2017).

Currently they treat and return approximately 75-85% of their water withdrawals back to municipal water treatment operations. There the water is treated and reused for irrigation or other purposes within the community or returned to the water environment. The remaining 15-25% of the water is used within the operations mainly through evaporation or landscape irrigation (CSR Intel, 2017).

Intel’s water strategy has three main objectives:

To conserve the water used in operations e.g. Ultrapure Water (UPW) Conservation: A large amount of water used by Intel consists of ultrapure water (UPW) which is used for cleaning silicon wafers during fabrication. Intel is planning to reuse this UPW after manufacturing for other industrial purposes and irrigation. They plan to increase the efficiency of their UPW process. They estimate that this conservation project will result into saving 942 million gallons of water while reducing annual utility costs by $4.3 million (Restore Water Goal,2018). To collaborate on water initiatives with local communities e.g. At Long Valley Meadow in Arizona, Intel through a partnership with National Forest Foundation is supporting the restoration of over 20 million gallons of water per year. This project uses ‘plug and pond’ technique to divert the flow of water out of the incised channels into the meadow. These headwater meadows are highly important for the hydrology of streams, fish and wildlife habitats as they retain and release water slowly (Restore Water Goal, 2018).

To create technology solutions to help others e.g. Intel has developed a system called ‘Internet of things’ partnering with a hazelnut producer in northwestern Oregon named Vanasche Farm. The system observes weather patterns and measures exact soil moisture at different locations across the farm. The data provided by the system is used to reduce water use by optimizing watering times (Restore Water Goal, 2018). In 2018, Intel had funded and collaborated on 14 community water projects that restore water in six states in the United States. Above are some of the examples (Restore Water Goal,2018).

Waste Management

Intel generates most of its waste from product manufacturing and construction. Intel regulates its hazardous waste which constitutes about 43% of total waste. The other 57% includes non-hazardous waste such as plastics, paper organics and metals and is unregulated.

Hazardous Waste

Intel aims to achieve zero hazardous waste to landfill by 2020. The rapid growth of Intel has led to a rise in their manufacturing processes and its complexity, which has increased the hazardous waste production of the company. However, they recycled approximately 70% waste and sent approximately 3% of it to landfills in 2017. To achieve their 2020 hazardous waste goal, multiple groups across Intel are working to recycle or recover waste streams for reuse, or even convert them into sources of revenue. In 2017, they continued the solvent recovery project started in 2016. In partnership with one of their top-performing chemical waste suppliers, they captured over 2,500 tons of solvent for resale from their mixed solvent waste, up from 650 tons in 2016. They also agreed to limit their salt discharge to publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) in Arizona and Oregon and began collecting the material in 2017 and directing it to landfill. Doing so increased their hazardous waste volume directly to landfill, but in the spring of 2018, they launched Intel’s first full chemical reuse life cycle program for salt discharge (CSR Intel, 2017).

Non-Hazardous Waste

Intel has set a goal of 90% non-hazardous waste recycle rate by the year 2020. They have implemented several programs to reduce, reuse, and recycle office furniture and other non-hazardous materials. They plan to achieve this by donating items to non-profit organizations and schools as well as encouraging the employees to recycle, among other efforts. In 2017, they diverted approximately 14,000 tons of waste from landfill and achieved a 99% recycling rate in a demolition project. At the end of 2017, Intel was able to beneficially reuse over 700 tons of material as feed stock and a replacement for virgin material in cement production. (CSR Intel, 2017)

Intel is taking thorough efforts to incorporate green design standards and concepts into the new construction of new facilities and renovation of old facilities. They are collaborating with different nonprofit companies and manufacturers to increase green building practices. Goal: Design all new buildings to a minimum LEED Gold certification between 2015 and 2020. Progress: As of 2017, Intel has achieved leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification for 15.4 million square feet in 46 buildings amounting to 25% of their operational space roughly.

Recently in 2017, in Bangalore, India Intel’s SRR3 office building received LEED Platinum certification. This building proves to be a world class smart and green building. It has more than 9000 sensors which monitor and optimize temperature, lighting, water use, energy consumption and occupancy. It also has solar hot water heating, rainwater harvesting and gray water re-use systems. The SRR3 LED lighting reduces building’s energy demand by 50% compared to traditional office buildings.

To reduce electricity consumption Intel is continuously taking efforts to install smart lighting systems in their buildings worldwide. These systems use daylight harvesting and occupancy sensing for energy conservation. Through their system ‘The Internet of Things’, Intel is rapidly progressing in the field of building automation. They are developing energy management, predictive maintenance, building safety and building security projects under this system. Some of the ongoing projects under this system are as follows:

• Wireless water meters for rainwater capture.
• UPW analytical cart wireless monitoring.
• Wireless power meters for non-critical office building circuits

A “smart meters” lab for rapidly testing, integrating, and qualifying sensors and IT infrastructure for industrialInternet of Things solutions. Exhaust motor wireless vibration and temperature monitoring for early automated problem detection and predictive maintenance. To maintain transparency Intel shares its real-time building performance in the U.S. Intel displays their energy and water conservation efforts and updates it regularly at Robert Noyce Building headquarters, California. This data also helps their own managers to review and optimize building functions.

Product Ecology

To avoid use of substances harmful for environment or for human health in their products is Intel’s vision. Intel imposes restrictions on the use of material based on legal requirements, international treaties and conventions, and specific market requirements. Since past decade Intel has been working with suppliers and customers for eliminating the use of lead and halogenated flame retardants from their products. While legally it is not mandatory to completely eliminate the use of halogenated flame retardants, Intel still is promoting low-halogen practices or elimination. They also engage their suppliers to meet the standards set by European Union’s Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulation. When the use of hazardous materials is unavoidable, Intel takes solid steps for safe handling, disposal and recycling of the material.

In todays world managing e-waste is a global concern. Most of the Intel’s products such as microprocessors and motherboards come under e-waste category. As these components are generally manufactured by original equipment manufactures (OEM), Intel works with OEMs, retailers and customers to identify solutions and to follow legal regulations. They try to integrate environmental considerations in the design phase of the products to minimize the environmental impacts that can be caused at the end of their life. In some countries Intel’s distributors provide recycling options for products falling under e-waste laws. One of the best example is a free mail-back program launched by Intel in U.S., 2017. This program helped the customers to properly recycle products such as Intel® NUCs, Intel® Compute Sticks, and Intel® Compute Cards.