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Sustainable site
Benefits of sustainable design | 2008 performance
Sustainable building design and efficient operations are money-saving business goals TI takes seriously. In the U.S. alone, buildings consume 12 percent of potable water, 30 percent of raw materials, 39 percent of all primary energy generation, 71 percent of electric consumption, and produce 39 percent of carbon emissions, according to the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).
 Like many other organizations, TI designs sustainable buildings to minimize environmental and economic impacts from operations. But for our company, sustainability is more than just a philosophy that acknowledges the need to balance the requirements of people, profit, product and the planet. It represents a very practical and systematic application of modern technology – in some cases, the technology our products enable.
A central tenet in our green building strategy is the USGBC's LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System. LEED standards go beyond simple regulatory requirements and deliver state-of-the-art systems, which push TI facilities closer to our corporate goal of zero wasted resources.
We chose the LEED Rating System for its overall credibility, high level of adoption and rigorous goals. We register all of our new major building projects with LEED and have three certified buildings to date. We will be incorporating LEED design principles in all new building construction moving forward. In addition, we are using the LEED Rating system for existing buildings as a template to guide our operational activities. We currently have two existing buildings that are LEED certification candidates.
Benefits of sustainable design
TI recognizes that sustainable building design improves the energy and water efficiency of our facilities, significantly reduces energy consumption from lighting, diminishes rain runoff, and reduces the urban heat island effect. It also shrinks our carbon footprint by reducing our direct emissions of natural gas from boilers and indirect waste emissions from reduced power use.
We incorporate green building concepts in five key areas: sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and the atmosphere, materials and resources, and indoor environmental quality. For example, when installing building water systems, TI observes three "Rs" fundamental to efficient water use: reduce, reuse and recycle. We reduce the need for water by installing native landscaping and waterless urinals. Our energy reduction initiatives also enable us to reduce the amount of water needed for cooling.
We reuse and recycle water in a number of ways to further reduce water consumption. This includes capturing rainwater and air-conditioning condensation for irrigation, reclaiming water from manufacturing tools, and collecting wastewater for reuse in scrubbers and cooling towers.
2008 performance
In 2008, Texas Instruments became the first semiconductor company in the world to achieve LEED Gold certification for a chip manufacturing facility. Our new Richardson, Texas, wafer fabrication facility (known as RFAB) was awarded two gold certifications – one for the office building and one for the manufacturing complex.
The LEED Rating System is a points-based system. As sustainable prerequisites are completed, builders can accumulate enough points to achieve one of four certification levels: certified, silver, gold and platinum. TI hasn't set specific achievement goals, but instead assesses each project to determine which LEED credits make the most sense for that particular site.
In the Philippines, our new Phase V assembly/test building in Baguio City was awarded LEED's silver certification – the first building of any kind in the country to achieve certification. TI is constructing another assembly/test facility in Pampanga (Clark), Philippines, for which we will apply for certification in 2009.
TI initiated several other sustainable building and efficiency activities in 2008:
- We formed a Green Solutions Team to integrate LEED standards within our existing facilities on a pilot basis. The team registered an office complex in Plano, Texas, and a wafer fabrication facility in Dallas, Texas.
- This team also developed a best practices checklist for all major TI sites to assess their baseline performance in energy and resource efficiency, as well as their ability to meet the nine prerequisites required in the LEED Rating System for existing buildings. Sites will complete this assessment by the first quarter of 2009.
Additionally, as energy management is a big focus of LEED, TI continued with energy-efficiency efforts in 2008. TI will continue consulting with the semiconductor industry to develop an Energy Star-equivalent metric for semiconductor manufacturing facilities. It is the goal of every major TI site globally to continue completing their respective LEED prerequisites in 2009, implement at least five LEED credits, and work to improve their best practices score by 5 percent.
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