Use of water
We use cooling water in our production facilities as a flow-through cooler or evaporative cooler. For both types, we can ensure that there is no contamination of the cooling water that is subsequently discharged.
We also need water for the production of wafers and wafer material. Most of this water is used in cleaning steps and is ultra-pure water of the highest quality. This is necessary in order to meet the extremely high requirements for the purity of wafer surfaces. As far as possible, we feed water used in a production process to other processes.
Water management
The fact that we pay attention to the careful use of water is also reflected in the fact that one of the six most important non-financial performance indicators relates to water consumption. This key figure relates the amount of water used in production to the wafer area. The indicator is linked to the target of achieving an average improvement of 1.5% per year. The starting point is 2015, and the Management Board is regularly informed about the development of the indicator and its background.
Waste water
Operational wastewater is fed to external wastewater treatment plants; it does not include cooling water. We monitor the chemical oxygen demand as a relevant wastewater parameter.
Water risks
We carry out an annual assessment of our production sites with regard to water risks. Physical, legal and reputational risks are identified and assessed for each water catchment area. The physical risks are based on the aspects of water shortage and water quality.
Annual report
Audited information and key figures on sustainability at Siltronic can be found in our current annual report.
