Soitec, a key player in semiconductors, engages to set itself new and ambitious mid- and long-term targets to cut its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and increase its support to reach the objectives of the COP21 Paris Agreement on climate change.
Soitec’s objectives and achievements in environmental sustainability will be monitored, validated and disclosed in cooperation with the globally recognized Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).
Soitec designs and manufactures innovative semiconductor materials that are cut into chips to make circuits for electronic components. It offers technologies to miniaturize chips, improve their performance and reduce their energy consumption; it significantly contributes – in its long-term programs and engagements as well as in its production and products – to lower GHG emissions and improve sustainability in microelectronics, in particular in strategic end markets like 5G applications, automotive, Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, cloud and edge computing.
The SBTi is an alliance of the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), a global non-profit organization that drives companies and governments to reduce their GHG emissions, the UN Global Compact program, the World Resources Institute and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). The SBTi provides companies with a path to reduce GHG emissions, in line with the Paris Agreement on climate change signed on November 2016.
Soitec engaged with the SBTi to work on setting ambitious and measurable mid- and long-term targets to reduce its carbon footprint and communicate its objectives within the next months. In 2020, the company performed its first voluntary global scope 3 analysis of its GHG emissions. Soitec was also awarded the Grand Prix of Digital Acceleration in the category “Impact for Good” by the French BFM Business channel; the award acknowledged a reduction of the energy consumption of each wafer produced by Soitec on its French main site by 63 per cent over the last six years.
As a result of its first efforts to monitor and report these data, Soitec achieved an upgrade in the CDP rating from category F to category C in December 2020.
Last week, Soitec received an 82/100 score in Gaïa Rating’s 2020 ESG survey, ranking 16th amongst 230 rated companies. As a consequence, Soitec joined the Gaïa Index, which groups the 70 top-rated companies and was published annually for the 12th time.
“Soitec is committed to support the Paris climate objectives and has been actively engaged in cutting global greenhouse gas emissions for many years,” says Paul Boudre, CEO of Soitec. “Sustainability is in our DNA. We are engaged and committed not only to deliver important contributions to the reduction of emissions in our own production facilities; but we also support our customers in improving their carbon footprints. Our technologies drive the energy efficiency of a large range of microelectronics, spanning from 5G smartphones and infrastructures, consumer electronics, cars, sensors, power supply and batteries to radar, robotics, imaging, cloud and edge computing as well as space applications. Working with SBTi will allow us to continue our efforts, set ourselves even more ambitious targets, and thus set new benchmarks for environmental sustainability.”
