Company Profile - Intel
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It is the tiny little Intel processors inside your PC that are responsible for most of the energy use and the bulk of your computing carbon footprint. So how efficient these little components operate is crucial to global warming as computers reach the farthest corners of the globe.
Intel is faced with a difficult situation. Customers are asking for enhanced energy efficiency to reduce their carbon footprint, but they also want more and more computing power. The latter point often offsets the gains made in the former.
Despite this, Intel has been able to make some strong moves towards reducing their own carbon footprint, and helping the masses of computer users around the world do the same.
In 2000, Intel helped form the World Semiconductor Council (WSC) with a commitment to reduce PFC emissions in the industry as a whole. Since the launch of this program Intel has lowered their own PFC emissions by 56%.
In 2006, Intel joined the EPA’s Climate Leaders Program. This is far later than many other companies have joined, but Intel has done everything they can to make up for lost time. They have committed to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions by 30% per production unit from 2004 to 2010. This is an extremely ambitious timeframe for the goal, although it is still based on production units, not total emissions. If their business were to expand rapidly, they could hit this goal and still increase their overall carbon footprint!
Although they have joined this program a bit late, Intel has been reducing their carbon footprint for several years already. Since 2001, they have implemented projects across their business operations that have saved over 400 million kWh of electricity – the equivalent of taking 50,000 cars off the road. While Intel is keen to brandish these large numbers, for a business of their size it is far from overwhelming.
Intel also has a strong recycling program and recycled 74% of their solid waste, and 68% of their chemical waste in 2006. They have extended their recycling efforts outside their own operations and run a number of recycling events that has brought in 1.5 million pounds of electronic waste to be recycled.
Outside the company, Intel has become a strong advocate of people and companies working to reduce their carbon footprint, and have stated their support (at least publicly) for a federal cap and trade system for carbon emissions.
Equally important to their efforts to reduce their own carbon footprint is the improvements they have made to their technology so that the rest of us can cut our carbon footprint too. In addition to providing far more processing power than only a few years ago, Intel’s processors are now much more energy efficient as well. Their new DuoCore processors in particular have seen excellent improvements in energy efficiency.
In 2008, with a view to improving their image as a green company, Intel became the biggest purchaser in the US of green energy, getting 48% of their electricity from Renewable Energy Certificates (note that while PepsiCo ranks 3rd, when combined with all of their subsidiaries and sister companies they actually rank first). This launched Intel to the number one spot on the EPA’s most recent Green Power Partners Top 25 list.
In public interviews, company spokespeople have said that in addition to improving their own carbon footprint, they hope that a big increase in demand for renewable energy in the US will spur more development and in turn improve efficiency and bring down prices. Should this come true, it will have a much bigger impact on overall carbon emissions than any change in their corporate operations could ever have.
So how do they stack up?
Business Strategy: 4.5/5 – a big push over the last five years has seen them make big efforts to improve energy efficiency across the business and to be an advocate of renewable energy
Products & Services: 3.5/5 – their processors still drain most of the energy your computer uses, though there have been big improvements in this area
Leading by Example: 4.5/5 – with numerous awards under their belt for reducing their carbon footprint and as the biggest purchaser of renewable energy in the country they have put pressure on other big companies to follow suit
Overall: 4.2/5
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