Freescale Furthers Green Vision

By Anamika Singh

TMCnet Contributor

 

Freescale Semiconductor, a provider of design and manufacture of embedded semiconductors for the automotive, consumer, industrial and networking markets, reportedly announced the results of its Environmental, Health and Safety initiative that began in 2001 and released significant new goals for 2015. It includes the reduction of CO2 impacts by 42 percent, the saving of more than 40 million kilowatts of energy and the conservation of more than 170 million gallons of water.

According to the U.S. EPA, the average American family of four uses approximately 400 gallons of water every day. The amount of water Freescale is saving could theoretically provide water for 425,000 American families for one day. or 1,160 families for an entire year.

 

Freescale EHS goals set for 2015 include achievement of a zero workplace injury and illness rate; recycling of 90 percent of waste generated; reduction of water usage by 50 percent; and reducing the carbon footprint by 50 percent by 2015.

 

“We are continually striving to conserve more of the Earth’s natural resources through development of more sustainable products and manufacturing processes,” Alex Pepe, senior vice president of Freescale’s supply chain organization, said in a statement.

“As an industry leader in reducing, reusing and recycling wastes, we are working hard to ensure that all aspects of our business are incorporating an emphasis on safety and the environment. We are committed to the implementation, maintenance and continuous improvement of our ongoing EHS goals, which can be seen in the accomplishments we’ve made since first putting these goals into place eight years ago.”

 

Freescale was one of the first corporations in 2001 to take key internal steps to ‘go green’ and set up the proactive 2010 EHS goals.

 

An example of how Freescale employees work to integrate the EHS initiatives across the globe is, Going GREEN in Austin, Texas. Greenhouse gas reduction, emissions elimination and natural resource conservation is a series of programs undertaken in Austin since 2005 to reduce emissions and waste and conserve natural resources.

 

Another such example is Pollution Prevention  in Chandler, Ariz. The Freescale Chandler facility modified one of its manufacturing processes with a nonorganic solvent cleaning material and reduced the usage of ethylene glycol by 295,374 pounds during 2008.

Bike to Work Day in France is company’s yet another initiative. In addition to cutting the carbon dioxide emissions usually emitted from cars, biking to work can also improve the health of the employee. Eighty employees participated in this program in Toulouse.