The Semiconductor Emission Explorer

Chip manufacturing is characterised by highly complex and resource-intensive production processes. In particular, front-end fabrication relies on more than 50 equipment types, around 300 chemicals, and over 1000 individual process steps. As manufacturing nodes advance, production becomes increasingly intricate, requiring more water, energy, and specialised materials to meet performance and precision requirements. 

These characteristics translate directly into a substantial climate and environmental footprint. Semiconductor fabs consume a lot of energy and depend on fluorinated process gases with high global warming potentials. In addition, production is embedded in water- and resource-heavy upstream supply chains. 

Yet, its environmental footprint remains largely difficult to assess, with data scattered across hundreds of corporate sustainability reports, and constrained by opaque methodologies and inconsistent disclosure formats. With our new microsite, we aim to change that. 

Building on our 2025 quantitative analysis Semiconductor Emission Explorer: Tracking Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Chip Production (2015–2023), interface has launched a new interactive microsite: the Semiconductor Emission Explorer — now available at semiconductor-emissions.org. 

Drawing on more than 240 publicly available CSR reports from 29 leading chip manufacturers, the Explorer provides the most comprehensive publicly available overview of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from the semiconductor sector to date, covering 76% of global chip manufacturing capacity. 

What the Explorer Offers   

• Aggregated charts offering a broad view of the semiconductor industry, showing how overall energy use and emissions have changed across the industry since 2015. 

• Company charts allowing you to compare emissions and energy consumption trends across manufacturers, years, and scopes, with options to explore and download company-level figures.  

• Interactive visualisations assessing the transparency and quality of CSR data disclosed by semiconductor manufacturers since 2015. 

• A consolidated, ready-to-download database tracking GHG emissions and energy consumption figures reported by 29 leading chip manufacturers.  

Our goal is to increase transparency around chip manufacturing emissions by visualizing trends in reported figures, highlighting data gaps, and supporting better-informed discussions on how the semiconductor industry can reduce its climate and environmental impact. The microsite will be updated annually and aims to serve as a public resource presenting the most up-to-date overview of semiconductor emissions trends.