What role does the Environmental, Health and Safety Team play in GlobalFoundries? 

The Environmental Team in GF specializes in environmental management, engineering, and compliance, guiding GF through a rapidly changing regulatory landscape and stakeholder expectations. We develop tools and techniques tailored to our company’s needs to achieve innovative sustainable manufacturing. 

GF recognizes the unprecedented global challenge of climate change and is committed to grow responsibly and minimize our environmental impact. We take ownership and conscientious steps to manage our energy and water usage, our waste treatment and work towards reducing total greenhouse gas emissions 25% by 2030. 

The impact of our environmental work in GF can be felt beyond our facilities and is deeply entrenched in the regional geopolitical and resource challenges. Water is a critical resource for semiconductor manufacturing and its supply is uncertain after 2061 when Singapore’s Second Water Agreement with the Johor State government ends. We are one of the first semiconductor manufacturers to adopt NEWater for industrial use and today, we recycle and reuse more than 50% of that water.  

Similarly, with the narrowing lifespan of the Semakau landfill, GF needs to reduce waste from our operations. We have systematically reduced and recycled our waste over the years, and just last year, GF was recognized by Underwriters Laboratories (UL) as the first semiconductor manufacturer in Southeast Asia to achieve the landmark “UL 2799 Zero Waste to Landfill”.  

How do you tackle these unique challenges? 

Our challenges come from all facets of our operations and require close partnership between our modules, facility teams, and our customers to resolve. Our current largest carbon reduction project was driven by one of our process engineers. His team applied knowledge learnt from another process to dramatically improve their fluorinated plasma processes efficiency. By striking plasma in a smaller and dedicated compartment instead of the much larger process chamber, the process gases could absorb energy much more efficiently, sharply decreasing the fluorinated gas needed. 

Another interesting way we manage these unique challenges is to take a circular economy approach. We identify opportunities to repurpose our waste output in another of our processes. For example, spent acid generated from wafer processing is reused for neutralization treatment and cleaning air emissions. 

Cleaner air emissions with better air abatement technology

Beyond technical solutions, sustainability is the right thing to do. It guides our interactions with our employees, communities, customers, partners, and our approach to environmental stewardship. To ensure a sustainable supply chain, we have a longstanding Conflict Minerals Policy where we verify that our goods and materials are ethically sourced. Sustainability is a conscious business decision, not an afterthought. 

What are the current and future environmental challenges that GF will face? 

In the near-term future, we will face increasing complexities in resource management and depletion. The effects of climate change are beginning to show, and its impacts intimately felt around the world. Just last year, Taiwan faced its worst drought in over a half century, causing its reservoirs to dip to unprecedented levels. By diverting water from agriculture and other purposes to semiconductor manufacturing, Taiwan was able to maintain its chip production. Singapore does not have such an option; sustainable water usage is now a matter of business survival. 

As for longer term challenges, reducing carbon emissions will be the most prominent. While energy efficiency projects could reduce some of the energy needs, they only chip away at the problem. For GF’s Journey to Zero Carbon to succeed while expanding manufacturing, our dependence on renewable energy sources must grow significantly in this decade. 

Recycling coffee grounds from Café

Finally, how can we expand the role of sustainability in our business?

Everyone has a part to play, and GF encourages making small but meaningful changes to our individual lifestyles, such as recycling coffee grounds and rewarding employees to use their own mugs and reusable containers for takeaways in our cafeterias.

Lim Han Bin, Section Manager of the Environmental, Health and Safety Team at GlobalFoundries shares about the challenges a foundry addresses, and the creative solutions put forth to operate a sustainable foundry.

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