More than half of Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition members now have a company-wide water strategy, plan or policy, according to the industry body’s annual report.
While 52 percent of EICC members had some sort of water strategy as of 2012, 38 percent have water reduction targets that apply to production use and 37 percent have targets on nonproduction use, according to the report.
Some 53 percent of EICC members treat production wastewater prior to discharge, and 41 percent treat sanitary wastewater prior to discharge, the report says.
Member carbon reporting rates for Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions were consistent with 2011 reporting rates. Some 37 respondents have been measuring annual greenhouse gas emissions for an average of 2.66 years, with 81 percent of responders measuring their footprint for up to the last three years.
Some 93 percent of suppliers provided Scope 1 emissions data, while 95 percent of suppliers provided Scope 2 emissions data. Thirty percent of suppliers provided Scope 3 emissions data.
In 2012, 67 percent of responding companies reported emissions reduction goals. However, company goals “varied widely,” the report says. Some companies have goals to reduce their overall percentage while others have goals to reduce scope or absolute versus emissions intensity.
In 2012, just 13 EICC companies reported using renewable energy sources onsite or purchasing them offsite, only 8 percent of their total electricity came from renewable energy sources, the report says.
The Consumer Electronics Association released its latest sustainability report last month. The report included examples of how consumer electronics companies are becoming more environmentally friendly, such as Sony’s development of SoRPlas, its proprietary recycled plastic.
Plastic scrap from leftover optical discs, transparent sheets and used water bottles is crushed, washed and converted to SoRPlas, according to CEA 2013 Sustainability Report. Traditional recycled plastics contain about 30 percent recycled material. Setting the bar higher, in SoRPlas the recycled content can be as high as 99 percent.
Additionally, by sourcing packaging materials from unexpected sources like bamboo, mushrooms and wheat straw, Dell has become a leading innovator in sustainable packaging design, the CEA report says.