ENVS THESIS DEFENSE: Tues April 26 NOON WSQ 111: Swarali Bhat, M.S Candidate: Silicon Revolution: Sustainability Disclosures and Performance in the Semiconductor Manufacturing Industry (2010-14)
Emily Moffitt
PLEASE FORWARD, ANNOUNCE, AND POST:
The Department of Environmental Studies at San José State University
is pleased to present a public research presentation
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Tuesday, April 26, 2016 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM WASHINGTON SQUARE HALL 111 |
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Swarali Bhat M.S. Candidate Environmental Studies Department San Jose State University
Silicon Revolution: Sustainability Disclosures and Performance in the Semiconductor Manufacturing Industry (2010-14) |
The semiconductor industry mainly involves manufacture of chips, microchips and Integrated Circuits used in consumer electronics, transportation, defense, and telecommunications sectors. This exploratory work investigates the sustainability performance and reporting practices in 20 semiconductor companies from 2010-2014 using document review, interviews and surveys. Surveys and interviews with sustainability managers from select sample companies are conducted to support the findings from the document review. The sample companies are either Integrated Design and Manufacturers (IDM’s) or semiconductor foundries with annual net revenue ranging from $0.2 Billion to $55.9 Billion and headquartered globally. The reporting guidelines developed by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) are the most popular reporting frameworks available today. In fact, the number of reports published using these guidelines have increased 108% over 2010 to 2014. Even though the practice of sustainability reporting is gaining rapid momentum, the data quality of the sample reports assessed using the modified sustainability matrix varies widely. This research assesses sustainability performance based on two factors- identification of trends in social and environmental data and adoption of 28 sustainability best practices specific to this manufacturing sector. Most of the resource use and emissions data analyzed from 2010-14 followed a decreasing trend. In some companies, the normalized environmental data exhibited a novel trend known as the new normal where baseline improvements in the normalized resource use were observed over the years. Most researchers in the past have found stakeholder pressure to be a key driver behind sustainability reporting practices, but this research found that the semiconductor industry publishes reports as an ethical responsibility and care for the society and environment. In the sample companies, the approach to environmental management is advanced and well-documented as compared to social initiatives. Furthermore, a positive association between sustainability data completeness and the sustainability performance was observed in the sample.
Keywords- Corporate Social and Environmental Responsibility, semiconductor manufacturers
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LIGHT REFRESHMENTS PROVIDED. ALL ARE WELCOME. |