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Water
A sustainable water resource is essential for a healthy community, balanced
growth, a high quality of life and Intel’s business. With some of our key manufacturing
sites in arid locations, we recognize that prudent water management
is an essential component of our overall business success.
Water Management and Conservation
Our approach to water management starts at the top with the commitment
of our senior executives to lead the way in environmental management.
We view water management from a holistic, life-cycle perspective.
Early in our site selection processes, we look at the water supply necessary
to run our operations. We then examine how we use water in our
operations. We have a team of dedicated water engineers who work to increase the water efficiency of
our operations and look for opportunities to save water in everything from making ultra-pure water for
our manufacturing processes to how we use water in our landscaping and restrooms.
Using the input of our hands-on water engineers, our strategic management council drives capital
improvement projects for new manufacturing process technologies and sets water conservation priorities
as part of factory planning. Because our business demands continuous process improvements, we
have frequent opportunities for new water-efficiency projects. In addition, our new 300mm process
uses 40% less water for each square centimeter of wafer surface area than the previous 200mm wafer
technology.
Intel has made a long-term commitment to maximize the reuse of wastewater in our operations and drive
further efficiency from our ultra-pure water plants. As a result, we have reduced our operational requirements
for fresh water by approximately 35%. While our ultimate vision is to some day see the continuous
reuse of water in semiconductor manufacturing, we currently discharge water from our operations
according to local permits. Those discharge methods vary from site to site based on the needs of the
local community. We partner with the local water management agencies to determine the best solutions
for each location.
In 2005, Intel adopted a new water conservation strategy that focuses not only on our internal efforts
but also on how we can:
• Share our expertise and learning with other businesses.
• Promote water conservation education and awareness in our local communities.
• Collaborate with universities, water suppliers, governments and water users to solve the most pressing
regional water challenges.
Efforts at Our Sites and in Our Communities
In Arizona, we invested more than $30 million for state-of-the-art water conservation technologies that
enable us to return clean water back into the aquifer and use treated municipal water in our cooling towers.
In New Mexico, Intel implemented a High Recovery Reverse Osmosis Process (HRROP) system, which
improves ultra-pure water efficiency, allowing the site to save approximately 500 million gallons a year.
Intel Corporate Responsibility Report 2005 • Environment
www.intel.com/go/responsibility
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