Identifying Scope 3 Emissions Hotspots

The Challenge

A leading Integrated Device Manufacturer (IDM) faced growing pressure to meet its sustainability goals while managing a complex global manufacturing network. Despite setting ambitious company-wide emissions reduction targets, the organization struggled to make meaningful progress due to several core limitations.

One of the most significant challenges was the lack of visibility into carbon emission hotspots at the fab level. Without the ability to pinpoint where emissions were highest, the IDM found it difficult to prioritize or tailor its abatement strategies. Compounding this problem was the limited availability of data at the die level. This lack of granularity prevented the company from performing precise carbon accounting for individual products or processes, which is crucial for identifying the most impactful areas for intervention. In addition, Scope 3 emissions—those associated with upstream materials and supply chain activities—remained difficult to quantify and model, further complicating any attempt to develop a comprehensive sustainability strategy.

Without a clear understanding of its carbon footprint across the full value chain, the IDM could not effectively optimize its operations or demonstrate progress toward emissions goals. The company needed a solution that could rapidly deliver detailed emissions insights, from die-level production to global fab operations, and provide actionable data to guide decision-making.

The Solution

To overcome these challenges, the IDM turned to EcoInsights, TechInsights’ sustainability analytics platform designed specifically for the semiconductor industry. With decades of semiconductor expertise and a rich history of technical reverse engineering, TechInsights offered a data-driven solution that provided the granularity and scope the IDM needed.

EcoInsights enabled the company to access and customize more than 1,500 semiconductor process flows across over 350 fabs worldwide, offering an unprecedented view into its global manufacturing operations. The platform also allowed users to tailor inputs such as die size and die yield to calculate Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 emissions both by wafer and by die—delivering a level of precision that was previously unavailable. Furthermore, EcoInsights featured advanced modeling capabilities for Scope 3 material emissions, enabling the IDM to uncover and understand the environmental impact of its upstream supply chain in far greater detail.

With these tools in place, the IDM was finally equipped to conduct deep analysis, evaluate tradeoffs, and drive targeted emissions reductions across its operations.

The Results

The deployment of EcoInsights marked a turning point in the IDM’s sustainability journey. One of the most significant achievements was the development of a strategy to reduce Scope 2 emissions by 30% by the year 2027. This was made possible through the identification and optimized allocation of renewable energy resources across the company’s global fab network.

In addition, the IDM was able to identify that abatement efficiency and die yield were among the largest contributors to overall emissions. With this insight, the organization initiated a targeted emissions reduction plan that included updates to equipment and a redesign of specific processes and products to enhance sustainability performance. Equally impactful was the discovery of material substitution opportunities that addressed key hotspots in Scope 3 emissions, allowing the company to make smarter procurement and design decisions that would reduce environmental impact further up the value chain.

Ultimately, the IDM shifted from a reactive stance on carbon reporting to a proactive, strategic approach rooted in data. EcoInsights not only reduced the time and cost required to generate carbon emissions analyses—it empowered the IDM to lead with sustainability, aligning environmental stewardship with operational excellence and innovation.