Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world's largest contract chipmaker, plans to open a zero-waste manufacturing center in Taichung City in 2023 as part of the company's efforts to assimilate green management into its business.

In a forum on the initiatives taken by the information communications technology supply chain in Taiwan to move toward net zero carbon emissions held on Wednesday, Lora Ho, TSMC's senior vice president of Europe and Asia sales, said the upcoming zero waste manufacturing center is expected to help the chipmaker effectively cut waste.

Zero waste manufacturing centers can turn waste into electronics materials which can be used again, to facilitate a circular economy, according to TSMC.

Also serving as the chair of the chipmaker's ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) committee, Ho said besides the facility in Taichung, central Taiwan, TSMC is also planning to set up zero waste manufacturing centers in the north and south of the country in the future.

Ho urged TSMC suppliers to work together with the chipmaker to cut waste from production to lower greenhouse gas emissions and push for green manufacturing processes.

In addition to cutting manufacturing waste, Ho said TSMC has intensified its efforts to purchase green power, hoping the purchases will help the development of the local green energy industry.

According to the Bureau of Standard, Metrology and Inspection (BSMI), TSMC has bought almost all green power produced and traded by certified enterprises in the country.

The BSMI's data showed of the 1.06 million certificates issued by the center from May 2017 to February 2022, about 910,000 certificates have been traded on the transaction platform under the bureau's National Renewable Energy Certification Center (T-RECC), with TSMC purchasing almost 900,000 certificates.

The 1.06 million certificates were issued for the production of 1.06 billion kilowatts per hour of electricity via renewable sources, which has cut carbon emissions by 534,000 metric tons, the BSMI said.

Ho said carbon emissions from TSMC's manufacturing procedure largely came from power consumption, which accounted for 62 percent of the total emissions while 14 percent resulted from production itself and the remaining 24 percent came from its suppliers.

She said on average, TSMC spends 1-2 percent of its revenue a year on energy conservation and carbon emission reduction as the chipmaker has set a goal of reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

TSMC also tends to use as much raw material as possible provided by Taiwanese suppliers, which helps it avoid long haul deliveries and helps to upgrade the local supply chain, according to Ho.

The chipmaker has tried its best to use raw materials which will not produce much waste to control carbon emissions from the very beginning, Ho said.

She added that TSMC has an advanced control system to closely monitor waste production.

TSMC has teamed up with another seven tech companies to set up the Taiwan Climate Partnership to form a Taiwanese green supply chain. Other partners are power management solution provider Delta Electronics Inc., contract electronics maker Pegatron Corp., flat panel supplier AU Optronics Corp., PC vendors Acer Inc. and Asustek Computer Inc., electronics component maker LITE-ON Technology Corp, and Microsoft Taiwan.

Also speaking in the forum, Yancy Hai (???), head of the partnership as well as chairman of Delta Electronics, said that at a time of pressing risks resulting from climate change, the alliance aims to lead the local high tech industry to explore opportunities in the green energy business.

By: DocMemory
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