Estimated scope 3 emissions included 1,000,000 from direct materials suppliers, 294,000 from transportation and distribution of inputs and operational waste, and 176,000 from business air travel.
Energy use and efficiency
In 2012, energy use in Intel operations increased 6 percent from 2011 on an absolute basis and increased 15 percent on a per-chip basis. Intel attributes the per-chip increase to lower manufacturing output at the end of the year.
Last year Intel invested about $30 million in energy conservation and efficiency projects, achieving energy savings of 117 million kWh. These projects included installation of more efficient lighting and system controls; boiler and chilled-water system improvements; and cleanroom heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and heat recovery improvements. Since 2008, Intel says it has invested more than $59 million and completed over 1,500 projects, saving more than 1.2 billion kWh of energy and $111 million.
The company says that it plans to this year publish energy conservation targets for 2016 to 2020.
In 2012, Intel reduced the number of data centers across its operations from 87 to 68. It replaced older servers with fewer higher performing servers based on the latest Intel Xeon processors and solid-state drives, which helped the company cut its cost per compute unit by over 10 percent. Intel also increased its virtualization percentage from 64 to 75 percent, and piloted a new technology to cool servers by bathing them in oil.
Video-conferencing allowed employees to eliminate more than 100 million miles in travel in 2012, saving over 600,000 hours of travel-related downtime and avoiding 95,000 metric tons of travel-related CO2 emissions, the report said. During 2012, Intel IT supported an average of 975 video conference meetings per week.
The company says it is on track to meet a 2020 goal of a 25-fold increase in the energy efficiency of notebook computers and data center products, from 2010 levels.
Intel last year piloted four electric vehicle charging stations for employees, and plans about 95 more this year.
Water
Water withdrawals in 2012 rose versus 2011, 21 percent on a per-chip basis and 8 percent on an absolute basis. Intel blames the rise on the increasing complexity of its manufacturing processes.
But the company says it completed water conservation pilots and initiated design projects that will help it meet a goal of cutting water use on a per-chip basis below 2010 levels by 2020.
