Intel, the semiconductor manufacturer, recently released its 2011 sustainability report and the news, in terms of water, wasn’t good. They’ve failed to meet their water reduction goal: While water use per chip is down 6% from 2010, it’s up 12% from 2007, the baseline year. The new goal is to achieve 2010 per chip water use by 2020; they’ve given themselves a higher bar and double the time to reach it.
Further, total water use in 2011 was up 11% from 2007, from 7.5 to 8.3b gallons, a trend attributed to the ‘increasing complexity of manufacturing processes.’ And this is despite the fact that the company has spent over $100m since 1998 on water efficiency efforts.
Intel isn’t the only big company in the water intensive semiconductor industry to show disappointing water reduction results. IBM, renown for their impressive water efficiency work at their Burlington, VT plant, where advanced analytics and infrastructure upgrades reduced water use 27%, and their foray into the smart water business, reported that their total water use in 2010 was up 3% over 2009.