How Qualcomm is Addressing the Climate Challenge
As published in Qualcomm's 2022 Corporate Responsibility Report
In fiscal 2022, we announced our plans to achieve net-zero global emissions for Scopes 1, 2 and 3 by 2040 and committed to the Science Based Targets initiative’s (SBTi) Business Ambition for 1.5°C. These goals reflect our belief that environmental sustainability is extremely important, with significant social and economic benefits that require collective action and leadership from our Company and other corporate citizens.
In line with our commitments, our strategy to achieve net-zero includes transitioning to renewable energy in our top operational footprint regions via long-term Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs), decarbonizing our operations through the replacement of high global warming potential gases in our manufacturing processes and reducing natural gas usage at our San Diego, California, headquarters. We also joined the Climate Pledge, a cross-sector community of companies committed to be net-zero by 2040 — 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement’s goals.
During our first full year of implementing this strategy, we’ve already made progress. Our 10-year renewable energy agreement with Shell Energy North America (US), L.P. (Shell Energy) has reduced our emissions by 25,785 tCO2 e, or 10 percent, of our total Scope 1 and 2 emissions since last year. Our solar PPA in Bangalore, India, (which began in 2018) continues to make a substantial contribution to our Scope 2 emission reductions in the amount of 15,284 tCO2 e (17,855 MWhrs) annually. We are also seeking to enter into long-term renewable energy agreements in our other top operational footprint regions of Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), India and Singapore.
Furthermore, in 2022, we reduced our consumption of natural gas at our German manufacturing facility by 50 percent by shutting down our combined heat and power plant. The remaining 50 percent of natural gas is used in waste air treatment to reduce emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and GHG emissions from manufacturing processes exhaust. To mitigate the climate impact from the remaining natural gas, we offset our consumption through green biogas certificates, which are produced in Europe from renewable plant material.
Following the successful test phase of our Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD) chamber clean project in 2021 at our German manufacturing facility, we continued to implement gas replacement in all PECVD chamber clean processes. The project replaces high global warming potential gases such as sulfur hexafluoride (SF6 ) and nitrogen trifluoride (NF3 ) with a fluorine-based gas mixture that has a global warming potential of zero, thereby reducing our Scope 1 GHG emissions.
Finally, we also implemented an internal carbon price across our three manufacturing facilities, as appropriate. This carbon price creates an assumed cost per ton of carbon emissions with an annual rate increase per year, with the objective of changing our internal behavior toward low carbon innovation.
Learn more in Qualcomm's 2022 Corporate Responsibility Report
