Apple Joins Sustainable Chip Initiative To Reduce Environmental Impact Of Phones
Image via Vividrange / Shutterstock.com
This week, Apple announced that it has joined the Sustainable Semiconductor Technologies and Systems (SSTS), a new research initiative led by the Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre (Imec) in Belgium to work on reducing the environmental impact of its chips.
SSTS will make use of models and carbon footprint analyses to offer ways for the circuit-making (IC) industry to lessen its greenhouse gas emissions, as companies look to do more in the fight against climate change.
According to VentureBeat, today’s technology depends heavily on semiconductors and chip-making, as it’s become ubiquitous in daily life, featuring in items such as washing machines to refrigerators, cars, and of course, smartphones.
Turns out, nearly 75% of a device’s greenhouse gas emissions can be traced back to its fabrication, with half of that being accounted for by IC manufacturing practices.
A study published by Harvard University alerted to the fact that information and computing technology could use as much as 20% of the global energy by 2030, with chip manufacturing responsible for most of the consumption.
Apple, being the first partner of the SSTS, will lend to the organization’s credibility in the industry. The program aims to inform its members of ways to reduce environmental impact based on early-stage choices in the manufacturing process. These changes will lend themselves to Apple’s own mission to become entirely carbon neutral by 2030.
“Many systems companies are carbon neutral today for their corporate footprints, and have expressed the ambition to have their entire carbon footprint to net-zero by 2030,” said Imec CEO Luc Van den hove.
“They are very committed to achieving that goal, yet often lack the data to decipher the IC part end-to-end. That is where Imec comes in. We have those data, and are ready to support the industry with all necessary insights, tools, instruments, and numbers.”
SSTS hopes that by working together with a market leader such as Apple, it will be able to influence others in the semiconductor niche to join them in reducing the industry’s ecological footprint.
[via VentureBeat, cover image via Vividrange / Shutterstock.com]
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