TI receives industry's first LEED Gold Status
certification for a semiconductor manufacturing facility
TI received LEED Gold certification by the U.S. Green Building Council
(USGBC) for its Richardson Fab (RFAB), a semiconductor
manufacturing site constructed in Richardson, Texas.
This gold certification is an industry first and underscores TI's
commitment to minimize its impact to the environment. LEED-NC (the NC
stands for new construction) is the USGBC's leading rating system
and sets the standard for environmentally sustainable construction.
Applying sustainable design to a fab
The RFAB project began with ambitious goals regarding
cost, energy and the environment, and required
rethinking every aspect of the design. TI designed
RFAB to be
one of the most efficient wafer factories in the
industry and one of the most environmentally responsible
manufacturing
plants of any kind in the world. Its energy-saving
features have resulted in a building that will
be 35 percent more efficient than code requirements;
that efficiency will help reduce emissions by 50
percent.
Water conversation efforts, including re-use and
recycling, will reduce water consumption by 40 percent.
"We spent about $1.5 million of the $320 million
budget on sustainable design," said Paul Westbrook,
TI's sustainable development manager. "In return
for that investment we expect to see a million dollars
of savings in the first year of production, ramping
up to more than $4 million a year once the factory
is fully operational."
TI can expect to achieve capital costs savings of
about $195 million, and save millions more in annual
operating costs through energy- and water-efficient
measures.
LEEDing
edge
LEED-NC is a key strategy for TI and the company
is pursuing LEED-EB (existing building) certification
for all major sites worldwide by 2011.
"We are now taking the lessons we learned in
energy and resource savings at RFAB and applying them
to our existing sites all over the world to reduce
environmental impact and operating costs," Westbrook
said.
The RFAB administration building and factory were
awarded LEED Gold ratings with 43 and 41 points, respectively.
(Gold status is only possible with a total of 39 points
or more). RFAB is now the first-ever LEED Gold certified
wafer factory; at 1.1 million square feet, it is also
the second largest LEED-NC Gold certified project on
record.
The two RFAB buildings are the 41st and 42nd LEED-NC
certified buildings in Texas and the 12th and 13th
in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. There are only nine
other gold buildings in Texas and just three others
in Dallas/Fort Worth. |
