Reducing Scope 3 Value Chain Emissions For Customers Through Sustainability And Innovation

As data center infrastructure expands to meet growing AI demand, sustainability is becoming an increasingly important consideration for Intel Foundry customers. Companies are evaluating not only energy consumption and carbon emissions, but also the broader environmental impact of the technologies they deploy.

Intel’s latest Corporate Responsibility Report outlines our progress in renewable energy, emissions reduction, water stewardship, and technology innovation. For customers, these efforts translate into an important benefit: helping reduce the emissions associated with the products and services they bring to market. By lowering the carbon footprint of semiconductor manufacturing and advancing more energy-efficient technologies, Intel Foundry is helping drive sustainability across the value chain.

Why reducing Scope 3 emissions matters

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are commonly reported in three categories:

• Scope 1: Direct emissions from company operations.
• Scope 2: Emissions associated with purchased energy.
• Scope 3: Indirect emissions across the value chain, including suppliers, manufacturing partners, logistics, and product use.

For fabless semiconductor companies, hyperscale cloud providers, and custom silicon designers, Scope 3 often represents the largest portion of total emissions. Because chip manufacturing is typically performed by foundry partners, emissions generated during wafer production are generally reflected in customers’ Scope 3 inventories rather than their direct operational footprint.

As a result, foundry sustainability plays an increasingly important role in helping technology companies achieve their climate goals. Reducing manufacturing-related emissions may support lowering the embedded carbon footprint of the chips customers use in their products. At the same time, Intel is working to reduce its own value-chain emissions by engaging suppliers in emissions-reduction planning and target setting, helping advance decarbonization throughout the semiconductor supply chain.

Fig. 1: From 2021 to 2025, Intel allocated $999 million to green projects that helped avoid greenhouse gas emissions, save energy and water, divert waste from landfills, and reduce waste.¹

Reducing carbon per chip

Intel Foundry approaches sustainability from two complementary directions: reducing the environmental impact of semiconductor manufacturing and improving the energy efficiency of future technologies.

Approach 1: Sustainable manufacturing operations

Intel continues to reduce the environmental footprint associated with semiconductor manufacturing. In 2025, 99% of the company’s global electricity consumption was sourced from renewable electricity, including 100% renewable electricity across major manufacturing regions such as the United States, Europe, Israel, Malaysia, Vietnam, and China.²

These efforts have produced measurable results:

• A 16% reduction in Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions versus the 2019 baseline.²
• Nearly 85% of cumulative Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions² avoided³ over the past decade through renewable energy and efficiency investments.
• Up to a 70% reduction in carbon footprint per wafer compared with a conventional grid-energy baseline,⁴ reducing the emissions associated with chips manufactured in Intel fabs.

Intel’s sustainability efforts also extend beyond energy. In 2025, the company conserved approximately 11.2 billion gallons of water through operational improvements and community partnerships, achieving net positive water status in the United States, India, and Costa Rica.¹ In manufacturing operations, approximately 69% of waste streams were reused, recovered, or recycled,² supporting Intel’s circular economy objectives and reducing demand for virgin materials.

Looking ahead, Intel has established goals of achieving net-zero Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 2040 and net-zero upstream Scope 3 emissions by 2050. To support these objectives, we are working closely with key suppliers to establish validated GHG reduction goals and implementation plans.

Approach 2: Technology innovation and energy efficiency

Reducing emissions from manufacturing is only part of the equation. The energy efficiency of semiconductors throughout their operational life can have an even greater impact on overall sustainability.

Intel’s latest process technologies incorporate innovations such as RibbonFET Gate-all-around transistors and PowerVia backside power delivery, which improve power delivery efficiency, reduce leakage, and enable higher performance at lower power.

These advances are reflected in Intel’s node roadmap:

• Intel 18A: Up to 18% higher performance at iso-power or up to 38% lower power at iso-performance,⁵ with approximately 30% greater chip density⁶ than Intel 3.
• Intel 14A: Expected to deliver 15–20% higher performance at iso-power or 25–35% lower power at iso-performance, with up to 30% density improvement over Intel 18A.

Both nodes incorporate Omni MIM technology, which improves power integrity and reduces voltage fluctuations, helping maximize efficiency and sustained performance.

Advanced packaging technologies also contribute to sustainability gains. Foveros 2.5D chiplet stacking technology enhances system-level efficiency by vertically integrating chiplets and shortening interconnect paths, reducing parasitic losses and improving power delivery.

Embedded Multi-die Interconnect Bridge (EMIB) provides high-bandwidth die-to-die connectivity while using significantly less silicon than traditional full-interposer approaches. Depending on implementation, EMIB may require only 15–25% of the silicon area of an equivalent full-interposer design, with analyses suggesting wafer-consumption reductions of up to 95% for interposer functionality.

Together, these manufacturing, process, and packaging innovations help lower both the embedded carbon footprint of semiconductors and the energy consumed during product operation.

What this means for customers

For customers, the foundry decision is increasingly about more than node performance. Sustainability, supply-chain resilience, and energy efficiency are becoming important purchasing considerations as organizations seek to reduce the environmental impact of advanced compute.

As sustainability becomes a larger factor in technology purchasing decisions, customers should evaluate foundry partners across four key dimensions:

• Embodied carbon per wafer and manufacturing emissions.
• Performance-per-watt roadmap, including process and packaging innovations.
• Renewable energy adoption and operational decarbonization progress.
• Supply-chain transparency and actions toward net-zero goals.

Intel Foundry’s progress in renewable electricity adoption, lower-carbon manufacturing, energy-efficient technologies, and supplier engagement may help customers reduce Scope 3 emissions while advancing their broader sustainability objectives.

Endnotes

1. Intel, “2026 Annual Green Bond Report,” July 2026.
2. Intel, “2025-26 Corporate Responsibility Report,” June 2026.
3. Avoided emissions are estimated by starting with reported emissions for each year, then adding estimated emissions reduced through three main categories: energy conservation projects, abatement GHG removal, and renewable electricity. This number is conservative.
4. 70% is based on Intel internal analysis comparing the difference between location-based and market-based Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions of a 300 mm wafer, following calculation methodology of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol for renewable electricity purchases. Results may vary.
5. K. Fischer et al., “Intel 18A Platform Technology Featuring RibbonFET (GAA) and PowerVia for Advanced High-Performance Computing,” IEEE/JSAP Symposium on VLSI Technology and Circuits, June 2025. Results may vary.
6. Based on Intel internal analysis comparing Intel 18A to Intel 3 as of February 2024. Results may vary.

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