Blog

Working toward a net zero future 

Lam took a leadership role on climate action when we announced our most ambitious sustainability goal to date: to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. We know this ambition is bold and must be paired with good governance. To guide our work, we formed a net zero leadership team that is responsible for working with business units to integrate climate considerations into our decision-making processes, driving progress on our net zero strategy, and tracking greenhouse gas (GHG) performance on our climate goals.

Building better communities 

Driven by our motivation to contribute to programs that build a better world, the Lam Foundation supported over 1,500 charitable organizations in 2021.  

Today, we are proud to announce the launch of our new social impact program, Powering Breakthroughs Together, which will empower people to make meaningful change and sustainable progress at scale in three areas: transformative learning, resilient communities, and inclusive societies. Watch this space for more details! 

Designing our products with climate action in mind 

For decades, our products and services have driven semiconductor breakthroughs that define the next generation. Now, more than ever before, we feel a heightened responsibility to innovate sustainably as we transition to a net zero economy. In 2021, we introduced new and improved etch products to deliver up to 15% improved generator efficiency on several toolsets for NAND and foundry logic and 30% to 50% improved clean times via chamber modifications. 

Going further together in sustainability 

In 2021, we announced our goal to operate 100% on renewable energy by 2030 and in the past twelve months, we’ve already made significant progress against this target. We’ve sourced 54% renewable energy globally, including achieving 100% renewable energy at our Ohio, Malaysia and China sites, joining our manufacturing operations in Austria, which had already met this milestone. 

To accelerate the company’s progress towards its sustainability goals, we launched Lam’s Employee Sustainability Community (LESC) and Green Teams, which drive local sustainability projects and encourage employees to get engaged in environmental opportunities.  

Putting our people first 

Our employees are at the heart of our success and in the past year our people delivered – all while navigating one of the largest ramps in the company’s history amid a global health pandemic. That’s why we continue to roll out programs that invest in their wellness and development and foster an inclusive and engaged workforce. In 2021, we enhanced our parental leave program, expanding our paid maternity leave for birth mothers up to six months and providing all parents with up to four months of paid parental leave. We also launched WorkWise, a global initiative to support employee wellness and engagement across our distributed workforce.  

Despite our changing work dynamic over the past few years, with a portion of our employees working remotely, we are especially proud that our employee engagement index score of 80 put us in the top 20% of our survey vendor’s technology clients for the second year in a row.  

Engaging our partners  

Our supply chain plays a significant role in our scope three emissions. As we endeavor to reach net zero in the coming decades, we recognize that we will need to develop innovative approaches to help our suppliers transform their operations. To facilitate their transition towards greater sustainability, we developed a net zero supplier engagement strategy which will touch our entire supply chain footprint that spans six continents.