Intel aims for net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040

Intel has laid out plans to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 as part of its efforts to tackle climate change.

"The impact of climate change is an urgent global threat. Protecting our planet demands immediate action and fresh thinking about how the world operates," Intel chief Pat Gelsinger said.

"As one of the world's leading semiconductor design and manufacturing companies, Intel is in a unique position to make a difference not only in our own operations, but in a way that makes it easier for customers, partners and our whole value chain to take meaningful action too."

To reach its end goal, Intel has set a series of interim milestones for 2030. These include achieving 100% renewable electricity use across its global operations; investing approximately $300 million in energy conversation at its facilities to achieve four billion cumulative kilowatt hours of energy savings; build new factories and facilities to meet US Green Building Council LEED Program standards; and launch a cross-industry R&D initiative to identify greener chemicals with lower global warming potential and develop new abatement equipment.

The company outlined that by 2030 it also wants to reduce supply chain greenhouse gas emissions by at least 30%, lower emissions related to reference platform designs for client form factors by 30% or more, and increase client and server microprocessor energy efficiency by 10 times.

Additionally, Intel is looking for a fivefold increase in the energy efficiency of discrete graphics processing units by 2025.

Intel noted that teaming up with customers and other industry partners will be another key aspect to achieving its 2040 goal, highlighting how it is partnering with companies such as Submer to launch liquid immersion cooling pilot deployments for data centres across cloud and communications service providers

"Collaboration is key if we want to find solutions to the significant environmental issues the world is grappling with. Intel has been an important partner in this regard, helping us drive joint innovation supporting motherboard optimisation, development of the bio-based printed circuit board and increasing system power efficiency in our Concept Luna device," Dell Client Solutions Group CTO Glen Robson said.

At the same time, Intel said it is considering the layout, selection, and modularity of all internal components to reduce the size of main boards, and will be using bio-based printed circuit boards to make separation of materials and components easier for recycling and to reduce overall electronic waste.

Intel joins a growing list of tech giants that have made similar sustainability pledges, including IBM, Amazon, and Google.

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