Foxconn Shared the Best Practices of Green Chemistry

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn) shared its ESG vision and achievements at the UL ESG forum in Shanghai. With the theme of "Sustainable Strategy, Circular Economy and Zero Waste Management at Foxconn," Ron Horng, Hon Hai Technology Group Vice President and Chief Environment Officer was invited to share about the best practices at Foxconn, with participants from the various industries worldwide.

With the business formula “Sustainability=EPS+ESG” introduced by Hon Hai Technology Group Chairman & CEO Young Liu, the company has moved towards the United Nations SDGs (sustainable development goals) through various measures to achieve "responsible production". At the forum, the company shared their perspective on the circular economy and their plans to realize a green supply chain.

As a start, Foxconn has prioritized adapting lead-free and halogen-free manufacturing processes in their daily operation in the campuses—protecting their employees and reducing the impact on the environment. In recent years, more projects involving green chemicals have been initiated. Part of the process included a review of the chemicals used in the FATP (Final Assembly Line). This resulted in the company refreshing their list of forbidden chemicals and the introduction of green chemicals instead. At present, green chemicals are widely used in FATP lines across all campuses. This year’s focus will be on the components manufacturing lines, beginning with the identifying of chemical suppliers that would be able to provide a green cleaner and degreasing agent.

Beyond a constant review of their internal operations, Foxconn also seeks external partnerships, working with industry organizations like IPC (the global association for electronics manufacturing) to develop industry guidelines for green chemicals. Together with other IPC partners over the past year, Foxconn was part of the group that developed a new IPC-1402 standard for green cleaners, that will debut early next year. The introduction of green chemical standards is an important step toward the sustainability of the electronics manufacturing industry. It not only guarantees the safety and health of workers in the supply chain, but also reduces the environmental impact during production.

As a global technology company, Foxconn recognizes the need to give back to the industry and has participated in opportunities and platforms to share their experience on integrating green chemistry in manufacturing operations and supply chains. Some of the opportunities has included the company assisting leading international organizations like ChemFORWORD to build platforms for identifying and developing safer cleaning products. The goal of sharing their industry experience, is for the company to catalyze collaboration that would lead to the development of a more robust green manufacturing environment for the industry.

To tackle zero waste, Foxconn Shenzhen Longhua Park launched the UL Turbo Waste management platform in January 2021. Through the data analysis, the system is able to track waste generation, material flow and conversion rate in real time. The data harnessed is further combined with waste reduction and recycling solutions to make continuous improvement. As Foxconn’s first zero-waste demonstration site, Foxconn Longhua Park was awarded the Zero Waste Green Ecological Park in Shenzhen by City Hall in June this year. It will also soon be certified as the first UL Golden Zero Waste Park in the world early next year.

In 2020, Foxconn achieved remarkable results in their efforts towards green manufacturing. Carbon dioxide emission by revenue decreased by 23.27% compared with the base year 2015; through energy-saving renovation, up to 500 million kilowatt-hours of electricity was saved; the use of green energy exceeded 1 billion kilowatt-hours, accounting for 12% of the group's total electricity consumption.  This October, Foxconn’s efforts were recognized by the Green Supply Chain CITI Index and the Corporate Climate Action CATI Index in 2021 in Greater China, with their company ranking high on the index.

With priorities on green manufacturing, the circular economy and zero-waste ecological park, Foxconn’s ESG efforts will propel it towards the goal of sustainability.