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Water, a precious commodity for everyone, is critical for TI's manufacturing processes.
The amount of water used to manufacture a TI chip has declined by about 7 percent per year over the past five years. It now requires less than one third gallon of water on average to make a single semiconductor chip.
TI manages three types of water use globally:
- Non-manufacturing — this includes water used in restrooms, irrigation, water fountains and cafeterias.
- Manufacturing:
- Visible water – used in rinse bath fills and other manufacturing processes.
- Invisi-water – used in process exhausts and cooling systems.
All of the water used directly and indirectly to manufacture products is called "water footprint." Reducing the company's water footprint helps conserve natural resources and saves money. So how does the company go about reducing its water footprint?
TI's water experts implement a variety of projects annually to reduce water consumption. These range from simple to complex, from the installation of waterless urinal installations, leak repairs and rainwater collection for landscape irrigation, to rinse water reclaim for reuse in exhaust scrubbers.
TI sites worldwide are reaping the benefits of the company's innovative conservation practices.
- TI's central utilities plant in Dallas reuses acid from one of the company's manufacturing buildings, which results in less water use for the cooling towers and saves 66 million gallons per year.
- TI's Baguio City site in the Philippines reuses reverse osmosis reject water for toilet flushing and saves 24 million gallons per year.
- Another TI site in the Philippines reuses nonindustrial water for flushing and saves 5.5 million gallons per year.
- TI's Freising, Germany site optimized its water purification plant and saves more than 16 million gallons per year.
In addition to these best practices, many other TI sites globally, from the U.S. to China are also proactively working to reduce use and reuse water where possible.
When it comes to water consumption, TI's target for 2011 is to reduce its water footprint by 5 percent. Longer term, TI's goal is to reduce the amount of water required to produce a chip by 45 percent by 2015.
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