Water

We acknowledge water as an important part of our production processes and understand that, as a good steward, we should look to limit our use or reuse. Since it's not currently technically feasible to drastically reduce the amount of water we use in our manufacturing processes, we focus instead on increasing our water recycling rate so we use less incoming water.

Water Use

Our sustainability programs place a high priority on water conservation including improving tool efficiency and increasing water recycling opportunities.

Water Consumption

Semiconductor manufacturing, especially wafer fabrication, is a water-intensive process. To reduce the amount of incoming water we consume, we focus on a mid-term goal of increasing our water recycling rate to 60% by 2027.

Water Retrieval

At our manufacturing sites, water mostly comes from nearby municipal facilities. The Nijmegen and Oak Hill facilities are our manufacturing sites that extract well water, representing 6% of our total water consumption.

Water Recycled

Recycled water represented 48% of our total water use in 2022, meaning we are close to using the same amount of recycled water as non-recycled water.

As semiconductor technology evolves, manufacturing processes are becoming more complex. Smaller, faster semiconductors require more process steps to produce, which in turn increases the amount of water used for cleaning, so as to ensure product quality and process safety.

Our decade-long focus on water conservation, has emphasized the use of more efficient tools, taking advantage of opportunities to increase water recycling and finding ways to optimize processes.

Normalized Water Consumption

Our normalized water consumption decreased by 1% from 2021.

Absolute Water Consumption

In 2022, the demand for our products increased 9% compared to 2021. As a result of this demand, our absolute water consumption increased by 8% compared to 2021.

Recycled Water

Since 2012, our percentage of water recycling has increased by 16 percentage points. We currently recycle 48% of our water, and have created a task force to identify new opportunities for water recycling.

2022 Water Stress Index Scores

The Water Stress Index (WSI) evaluation tool is used by the United Nations and other organizations to study the relationship between water use and water availability. WSI scores are divided into four risk categories: extreme (0.0-2.5), high (>2.5-5.0), medium (>5.0-7.5) and low (>7.5-10.0).

Wafer Fab Assembly and Test
ATMC, Austin, Texas, US 5.7 Bangkok, Thailand 5.3
Chandler, Arizona, US 0.0 Kaohsiung, Taiwan 4.2
Nijmegen, Netherlands 7.9 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 3.4
Oak Hill, Austin, Texas, US 5.8 Tianjin, Mainland China 0.0
SSMC, Singapore 2.8

The index is based on mean annual water stress, and therefore the seasonality of water stress is not captured. Countries and regions are assigned a rank according to their relative position in each index.

Wastewater

We are committed to returning water to the environment that is as clean, or cleaner than, what we sourced. We employ onsite water-treatment facilities to treat wastewater outflows, and ensure any chemical constituents from our wastewater that could potentially impact the environment are avoided. Our Facility Teams continuously monitor and test our water, as required by local authorities, and aim to discharge wastewater that is cleaner than what local regulations require.

Our total wastewater discharge is less than our total water retrieval because a certain amount of water is lost due to evaporation landscape irrigation, and as part of non-hazardous sludge disposal.

NXP did not receive any excursions, fines or penalties in 2022 related to wastewater discharge. As of 2022, we publicly disclose our wastewater discharge in our Corporate Sustainability Report. Our total wastewater discharge is less than our total water retrieval because a certain amount of water is lost due to evaporation, landscape irrigation, and as part of non-hazardous sludge disposal.

Wastewater Discharge Unit 2022
Total Wastewater Discharge m3 8,753,231

Wastewater Excellence Award

The two manufacturing sites in Austin and Oak Hill, both received the city's 2022 award for Excellence in Wastewater Pretreatment (based on 2021 performance). This is the eighth consecutive year for Austin to receive the award, and the seventh for Oak Hill.