Environmental Performance and Efficiency in the Semiconductor Fabrication Sector

Semiconductor manufacturing has followed the fate of a large part of industrial production: many companies, around the world, have maintained higher functions (design and engineering) and outsourced other production stages to third-party manufacturers, located mostly in Asia. Chip companies have thus become “fabless” firms, commissioning their product “fabrication” to wafer “foundries” or “fabs.” The aim of this chapter is to investigate, by elaborating the most important key environmental performance indicators (KEPIs) of corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports, the environmental performance and efficiency of the world’s leading semiconductor foundries. The result is that, unlike what happens in many other sectors, in the semiconductor industry, larger company size and advanced products are not always related to lower quantities, per unit of production, of energy, waste and GHG emissions. It is hoped that, for the future, those foundry firms with the most advanced technologies will invest much more to optimize their energy use and to adopt efficient recovery and recycling systems to further reduce the amount of their GHG emissions and waste, especially of hazardous ones.