Take a look at that 12-ounce can of soft drink that may be on your desk at the moment. Spansion used almost 11 of those “soda cans” filled with water (equal to one gallon) in order to make a single NOR Flash chip in Q1 of this year at its flagship Austin, Texas facility. Semiconductors benefit society in numerous ways, but there is an environmental impact from the manufacturing process; the Austin team, in an effort to minimize this impact as well as to control costs, started a multi-year water conservation project in 2001 and in the last two years has made major improvements to the system. The project was recently recognized by the City of Austin.
On behalf of Spansion, Dan Wilcox, an Austin Facilities Engineering Manager, accepted on April 21st the 2011 City of Austin Environmental Awareness Award (in the Large Business Category) in recognition of the outstanding success of the water conservation project. By reclaiming 670 gallons per minute of clean wastewater for use as a replacement for incoming city water, the project has resulted in a 60% overall reduction in water usage. That would be 7,150 soda cans per minute!
Austin city officials not only valued the direct environmental benefits of the project, but also saw positive impacts on environmental conditions and greenhouse gases. By using less water, the city’s water utility used less electricity to produce the clean water thus reducing ground-level ozone and volatile organic compounds (byproducts of the power generation process); these pollutants are of particular concern to Austin city officials trying to meet EPA clean air requirements.
I am happy that we can celebrate this success. We believe that responsible corporate citizens realize business success while operating with the highest standards of respect for people and the environment. At Spansion, being a responsible company is our way of doing business, now and well into the future.
