Sustainability News

Hsinchu, Taiwan, December 16, 2022 - United Microelectronics Corporation (NYSE: UMC; TWSE: 2303)(“UMC”), a leading global semiconductor foundry, today announced it has been recognized in CDP’s “A List” for environmental transparency and action on both climate change and water security. Out of nearly 15,000 companies scored in the annual evaluation, UMC is the only semiconductor firm globally to achieve a double “A” score.

UMC’s Co-President and Chief Sustainability Officer SC Chien said: “Combating climate change has long been an area of focus for UMC, and we’ve stepped up that commitment with our pledge to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. As part of that journey, the Company is pursuing renewable energy transition and our climate targets have been verified by the Science Based Targets Initiative. It is very encouraging to see our efforts recognized by CDP and other prominent sustainability assessments, and we will continue to leverage our IC manufacturing expertise and collaborate with value chain partners to unleash the power of technology for a better future.”

Under UMC’s three-pronged strategy to reach net zero, the Company will reduce emissions from its IC manufacturing processes, increase usage of renewable energy, and invest in net-zero technologies.

As a member of global renewable initiative RE100, UMC has set progressive targets to source more green energy and its usage of renewables will reach more than 5 percent of overall electricity consumption this year. UMC has installed solar photovoltaic systems capable of generating over 8,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity a year, and has additionally purchased more than 200 GWh of renewable energy. To reduce impact on water resources, UMC has implemented measures to reduce the amount of water consumed in manufacturing processes, to increase water recovery rate, and to encourage greater efficiency in water management, leading to a total of 33.52 million metric tons of water conserved in 2021. Recognizing these efforts, CDP has awarded UMC “Leadership” rating for water security for three consecutive years.

The disclosure system and scoring process of CDP, a non-profit organization formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure Project, is widely recognized by investors and other stakeholders as the foremost standard for measuring corporate transparency and action on environmental issues. Annual questionnaires on climate action, water management, and forest protection are used to score companies on their environmental conservation efforts. More than 680 investors with over US$130 trillion in assets requested companies to respond to CDP questionnaires, and over 18,7000 firms representing half of global market capitalization have disclosed environmental data this year through CDP.

About UMC

UMC (NYSE: UMC, TWSE: 2303) is a leading global semiconductor foundry company. The company provides high quality IC fabrication services, focusing on logic and various specialty technologies to serve all major sectors of the electronics industry. UMC’s comprehensive IC processing technologies and manufacturing solutions include Logic/Mixed-Signal, embedded High-Voltage, embedded Non-Volatile-Memory, RFSOI and BCD etc. Most of UMC's 12-in & 8-in fabs with its core R&D are located in Taiwan, with additional ones throughout Asia. UMC has total 12 fabs in production with combined capacity over 800,000 wafers per month (8-in equivalent), and all of them are certified with IATF 16949 automotive quality standard. UMC is headquartered in Hsinchu, Taiwan, plus local offices in United States, Europe, China, Japan, Korea & Singapore, with worldwide total 20,000 employees. For more information, please visit: https://www.umc.com.

Note from UMC Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

Some of the statements in the foregoing announcement are forward-looking within the meaning of the U.S. Federal Securities laws, including statements about introduction of new services and technologies, future outsourcing, competition, wafer capacity, business relationships and market conditions. Investors are cautioned that actual events and results could differ materially from these statements as a result of a variety of factors, including conditions in the overall semiconductor market and economy; acceptance and demand for products from UMC; and technological and development risks. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in UMC’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. UMC does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable law.