Environment

Download our Environmental Protection Policy here

UMC is committed to promoting environmental sustainability, and striving for a future where business performance and the ecological environment can thrive together. The ESG Steering Committee, comprising members of the executive management, is responsible for the supervision and management of the Company’s environmental protection programs, and regularly reports to the Board of Directors, which is the top decision-making body on major environmental policies. Reporting to the ESG Steering Committee, the Corporate Sustainability Committee is responsible for executing initiatives for energy and water conservation, carbon emissions reduction, waste reduction, and other environmental protection goals.

• Fully comply with or go beyond requirements of environmental laws and regulations, and international conventions, striving for zero pollution and sustainable development.
•  Integrate environmental management into the Company’s operational and management systems, and build an environmentally conscious company culture.
•  Actively set aggressive environmental management goals, regularly track and continuously improve environmental performance, and reduce environmental impact.
• Introduce and develop environmentally friendly technologies that can be applied to R&D, procurement, production operations, business facilities, distribution and logistics, products, and/or services to minimize environmental impact at each life cycle stage in order to achieve green design, green production, and green operations goals.
• Stay informed of environmental trends around the world, assess the associated opportunities and risks, engage in proper waste management, effectively utilize energy/resources, and promote circular economy.
• Conduct regular training on risk assessment and risk management to ensure employees understand the environmental impact of their work activities, enhance environmental protection awareness, and encourage responsible action.
• Enhance awareness of the Company’s environmental policy and environmental impact among both internal and external stakeholders (including the Company and its subsidiaries, value chain partners, civil society) through due diligence, active communication and engagement, and transparent information disclosure.
• Fulfill corporate social responsibility and cooperate with the government, the public and global business partners in ecological improvement and rehabilitation.

UMC aggressively promotes cleaner production and adopts state-of–the-art technology to facilitate sustainable operation and development. UMC first selects its target from raw materials that produce major waste by referring to international trends and government-controlled chemicals. Related departments will then conduct small-scale experiments to evaluate technology feasibility while reducing this target in conformance with the company’s cost-down policy and internal benchmark method. If the methods prove feasible, the reduction techniques will be applied in each fab.

Besides facilitating source reduction, our priority waste treatment strategy is recycling, followed by use as auxiliary fuel. Finally, the remaining waste is incinerated or sent to a landfill.

UMC promotes waste recycling to its subsidiaries. In 2022, UMC and its subsidiaries, Hejian Technology and Wavetek, removed hydrogen peroxide from waste dilute sulfuric acid in the fab, which is then used for ammonia nitrogen wastewater treatment or as a chemical for air pollution control equipment. Together, waste sulfuric acid was reduced by 9,507 tonnes, and the purchase of industrial grade sulfuric acid was reduced by 9.976 tonnes, resulting in total economic benefit of NT$65.93 million for the Company.

• In 2022, UMC launched a waste photomask recycling project. By removing patterns from used photomasks with cleaning equipment, they are converted into quartz substrates that can be resold. This project has reduced waste photomask generation by 2.3 tonnes, and the economic benefit from selling the recycled products reached about NT$4.69 million.
• In the same year, UMC also launched a circular economy project for converting waste copper sulfate liquid through electrolysis into copper rods with resale value. This has reduced the copper sulfate generation by 61.6 tonnes, and has generated about NT$598,000 in revenue for the Company.

On March 17, 2022, UMC announced that it will invest NT$1.8 billion to establish the Circular Economy & Recycling Innovation Center at its Fab 12A. The center will not only be the first R&D center for waste recycling in the Southern Taiwan Science Park, it will also serve as an important benchmark for circular economy and sustainable operations for Taiwan’s industries. It is expected to reduce 15,000 tonnes of semiconductor manufacturing waste annually after its official launch in 2025. This investment demonstrates UMC's determination to move towards a circular economy and a zero waste future.

All of UMC’s waste is outsourced for treatment by contractors. In addition to selecting a qualified contractor and best treatment methods, UMC also established an annual audit plan for its waste contractors and conducts regular audits in the treatment plant.
Since waste types tend to diversify, UMC actively works with manufacturers to develop diverse reuse of technology and channels. We are committed to reducing waste and have an ultimate goal of zero waste.

UMC classifies air pollution into four categories: acid exhaust, alkaline exhaust, volatile organic compounds exhaust and normal exhaust. Treatment of acid exhaust and alkaline exhaust includes two stages. The first stage uses local scrubbers behind the process tools in order to treat toxic, flammable and PFC gases. For the second stage, gas is sent through central treatment tools for end-point waste gas treatment. Volatile organic compound exhaust is treated by zeolite-rotary-wheel absorbing equipment at the end-point treatment stage. All air pollution treatment and standby equipment have backup power in case of emergency.

• Applied surrounding forest landscaping to decrease impact on habitat migration.
• Created ecological ponds for the purpose of both flood detention and rain water reclamation.
• Inter-lock brick type pavement was applied.
• Used permeable sloping design for unexcavated areas.
• Replaced conventional AC pavement design for all internal access points to improve rain water retention capability.

• Adopt VAV air conditioning systems in all offices.
• Applied free-cooling control mode during the winter season.
• A comprehensive heat pump design has been introduced across the board as a boiler auxiliary to retrieve cooling loads back to the central chilled plant for water-return. These have contributed greatly to annual natural gas conservation.

Fab 12A P3&P4 introduced energy-saving fluorescent lamps with low-loss electronic ballast and metal halide lamps to improve lighting controllability. These have made huge contributions to annual energy conservation with the same designed illumination. This year was the first time that LEDs for fab cleanrooms were being assessed to see if production conditions would remain unaffected with the reduced lighting.

Solar power systems are installed to generate renewable energy for fabs.

• Ecological Green Net: Creating a continuous green zone around the plant, increasing bio-migration, foraging area or opportunity.

   

• Small biological habitat: creating a green reservoir with porous revetments, mixed forests, shrub area, to meet the needs of different organisms.

   

• Plant diversity: Choosing native plants to attract birds and butterflies, and creating a diverse biological habitat.

• Ecological restoration layer: Creating a mixed layer of plants by using plants of different heights.

   

• Plant spacing: Planting large trees on the road side and giving the trees sufficient space to grow.

   

• Three-dimensional green space: Increasing the soil layer above the basement of the OB Building to increase the 3-D green space for plant growth.

Using past promotional experience and success of its departments in source reduction, recycling and reuse, UMC employs outside green building and ecology experts and collaborates with relevant academic programs to plan and construct green buildings that are consistent with the US LEED and domestic EEWH standards. In 2010, the company participated in the Green Factory Promotion Alliance, which integrates industrial, governmental and academic forces, to help the government formulate a green building and clean production evaluation system for developing Green Factory standards for Taiwan.

In 2012, the company's new fab in Tainan Science Park and over 17-year old Fab 8A in Hsinchu Science Park were awarded the 1st Green Factory logo by the Industrial Development Bureau. Moreover, Fab 8A was the first 8-inch foundry facility in the nation to receive the award. In 2013, UMC redoubled its efforts to have all its Taiwan factories achieve the Industrial Development Bureau certification for clean production.

• Designs for new fabs will adhere to green building, green factory and smart building principles.

   

• Existing fabs will undergo green building and green factory assessments, and green design and construction will be gradually incorporated.

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