Environmental Indicators: Benchmarking Performance

Sheinbein, Rachel
(Intel, Chandler, AZ)

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Many companies have some type of environmental indicator program. As a result, the company can measure its performance. This is a great start, but one company might think that it is doing a tremendous job by reducing water use every year, but actually that company might use more water compared to another company. In 1998, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) established an Environmental Technology Support Sub-committee (ETSS) to benchmark environmental data within the same industry. The ETSS initially decided to benchmark water, volatile organic compounds, toxic release inventory chemical usage and hazardous waste generation at US manufacturing sites. Eventually, electricity was added. The comparison among companies was accomplished by using a normalizing factor. This effort is now in its third year. Each year more companies in the industry contribute data. The definitions and integrity of the numbers have improved. This paper summarizes the efforts and results of the ETSS benchmarking program.

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