Closing Out a Decade of Corporate Responsibility Accomplishments and Creating Greater Impact for the Next Decade

By Suzanne Fallender

In light of COVID-19, the need for corporations to take a collaborative approach to solve the world’s greatest challenges has never been more apparent. This is especially true for technology companies as data and information play a crucial role in helping to track, diagnose and treat this pandemic, and will continue to do so as we look to get ahead of future global challenges.

More: Intel Launches First Global Challenges, Marks a New Era of Shared Corporate Responsibility

Intel has a long history of integrating corporate responsibility efforts into our operations, and it’s hard to believe that nearly 10 years have passed since we developed our 2020 corporate responsibility goals. I am pleased to share that we achieved nearly all of them. Our latest Corporate Responsibility Report details our efforts, but there are a few accomplishments I’d like to highlight:
 

• Addressing climate change and sustainable water use are priorities for Intel given the energy and water intensity of semiconductor manufacturing. The United Nations reports that climate change is affecting every country on Earth — disrupting economies and changing weather patterns; and greenhouse gas emissions are at their highest levels. The UN also reports it is impacting our water, resulting in unpredictable supply, impaired quality and depleted sources. Some of the ways we have addressed climate change are by increasing our use of green power to 71% globally and reducing our direct carbon emissions by 39% on an intensity basis from a 2010 baseline. Since 2000, we have reduced our Scope 1 and 2 emissions 31% on an absolute basis¹, even as we significantly expanded our manufacturing capacity. We also exceeded our goal to reduce our water use below 2010 levels on an intensity basis², achieving a 38% decrease. In partnership with environmental nonprofit organizations, we restored 1 billion gallons of water to local watersheds.
• Advancing inclusion is core to our culture and essential to innovation. A recent Gartner survey found that 85% of diversity and inclusion leaders cited organizational inclusion as the most important talent outcome of their efforts, yet only 57% of organizations are currently using that metric to track progress. We set ambitious 2020 goals and committed $300 million to accelerate progress at Intel and across the technology industry. We reached full representation³ in our U.S. workforce for women and underrepresented minorities two years ahead of schedule as well as global gender pay equity. We also met our goal to increase annual spending with diverse suppliers to $1 billion and reached 5 million women through our technology empowerment programs.

I am proud of what we accomplished, but the world has changed significantly since we set the original goals. We need integrated corporate responsibility strategies in which companies use collaborative models to drive increased value creation and societal impact. The current pandemic has brought these new approaches into sharper focus as the challenges we face are simply too complex to be solved by any single organization.

With this in mind, we launched an integrated approach to create our 2030 goals and strategy. In order to drive a companywide mindset for corporate responsibility, we are leveraging the expertise and skills of many employees across multiple departments and regions. We also integrated input from external stakeholders, including our customers, investors, suppliers and community members, to ensure partnership and collaboration are at the heart of our work.

» View video: Intel Launches 2030 Strategy & Goals, Marks Era of Shared Corporate Responsibility

The result is Intel’s new RISE strategy and 2030 goals. Through this strategy, we strive to create a more responsible, inclusive and sustainable future, enabled through our technology and the expertise and passion of our employees. We will extend our impact by partnering with others in the technology industry and beyond, including government, NGOs and policymakers, to tackle key global challenges. Our RISE strategy is:
 

• Lead in advancing safety, wellness and responsible business practices across our global manufacturing operations, our value chain and beyond. One of our new goals in this area will scale our supply chain responsibility programs to 100% of our Tier 1 contracted suppliers and higher-risk Tier 2 suppliers, helping us to positively impact the lives of more people in the global supply chain. We will also work across our industry to leverage our best-known methods from our work on conflict minerals to extend responsible minerals sourcing across a wider range of materials to advance respect for human rights.
• Inclusive. Advance diversity and inclusion across our global workforce and industry, and expand opportunities for others through technology inclusion and digital readiness initiatives. As we look to 2030, we will increase women in technical roles to 40% and double the number of women and underrepresented minorities in senior leadership. We will also collaborate with our industry to create and implement a Global Inclusion Index. The Index will provide common definitions and data to clearly identify root causes and actions needed to collectively advance progress and build the future pipeline of talent.
• Sustainable. Be a global leader in sustainability and enable our customers and others to reduce their environmental impact through our actions and technology. With our new goals, we challenge ourselves to achieve net positive water use, 100% renewable power, zero total waste to landfills and additional absolute carbon emissions reductions, even as we grow. We will also launch collaborative initiatives to drive additional carbon emissions reductions and sustainable chemistry practices across our industry.

Today marks the beginning of a new era for corporate responsibility at Intel. We stand ready to work with others on our key global challenges to revolutionize how technology will improve health and safety, make technology fully inclusive and expand digital readiness, and achieve carbon neutral computing. We’ll drive to even higher levels of integration and collaboration to build more value for our stakeholders and deliver on our purpose to create world-changing technology that enriches the lives of every person on Earth.

I invite you to learn more about our accomplishments and goals, and how you can join us at intel.com/responsibility.

Suzanne Fallender is director of Corporate Responsibility at Intel Corporation.

The Small Print:

¹Absolute basis refers to the total amount of emissions being emitted.

²Intensity basis refers to a normalized metric that compares the total emissions target relative to its economic output.

³Full representation means that Intel’s workforce now reflects the percentage of women and URMs available in the U.S. skilled labor market.