Applied Materials, Inc. has published its latest Sustainability Report, detailing the company’s progress over the past year in reducing its carbon emissions and collaborating with customers and partners to drive a more sustainable semiconductor industry.
“As technology transforms our world at an unprecedented pace, the semiconductor industry needs to significantly scale up global chip manufacturing capacity while simultaneously finding a path to net zero,” said Gary Dickerson, President and CEO of Applied Materials. “These are complex challenges that no single company – or country – can solve alone, and Applied Materials is committed to collaborating across the semiconductor supply chain to define and deploy innovative solutions to reduce the industry’s environmental impact.”
The rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) is creating the opportunity for semiconductor industry revenue to double by around the end of the decade, yet data shows that the industry’s carbon footprint is on a path to quadruple in the same time period.* To help address this imbalance, Applied developed its Net Zero 2040 Playbook – a collaborative approach to reducing the company’s and the semiconductor industry’s carbon emissions.
Applied continued to source 100 percent of its U.S. electricity from renewables in 2023, and it increased its global sourcing to 70 percent. The company commissioned one of the largest rooftop solar arrays in Central Texas at its Austin Logistics Service Center, which is expected to produce more than 8.2 million kilowatt hours of electricity per year, enough to power approximately 1,100 homes.
Applied’s 2030 Scope 1, 2 and 3 emission reduction targets were validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). Applied is collaborating closely with its customers, suppliers and partners to reduce the semiconductor industry’s carbon emissions. As an inaugural corporate sponsor of Schneider Electric’s Catalyze program, Applied is working alongside other leading organizations to accelerate access to renewable energy across the global semiconductor value chain. Applied is also a founder and Governing Council member of the Semiconductor Climate Consortium, a global, ecosystem-wide effort to decarbonize the semiconductor industry.
