Sustainable operations
At ASM, powered by our Growth through Innovation strategy, we aim to improve people’s lives worldwide in meaningful and enduring ways. We start by focusing on our own operations and environmental footprint. And we aim to collaborate across industries, with the ambition to bring faster and more meaningful change to the environmental challenges facing the world today.
Our 2022 results
4.7% Reduction in absolute water withdrawal
86% Landfill diversion
109% Increase in reuse of packaging
Water management
Water is essential for all forms of life, communities, and businesses. That’s why for us at ASM, it is crucially important to manage our water usage responsibly. Our water policy seeks to define how we engage in water security. This includes:
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Defining and understanding our dependencies
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Setting our water stewardship principles
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Sharing how we collaborate and engage on water security issues
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Aligning to recognized global standards
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Setting targets to measure our progress
ASM focuses on proactive water conservation and implementing a best-practice approach. As a standard practice, the wastewater treatment systems at our engineering sites all have water reuse or recirculation capabilities, which helps to minimize consumption.
One example is our Phoenix site, where an ambitious 2019 reengineering project lets us maximize water reuse and achieve ongoing water savings. We do not use ultra-pure water for any of our process equipment at ASM.
Our absolute water consumption decreased in 2022 by 7,328 m³ (or 4.7%) relative to 2021.
Circularity and resource management
ASM is committed to promoting a more circular economy. In this sustainable production model, we see long-term opportunities for ASM in operations, product design, logistics and packaging, and building design. Across our operations, we are engaging to identify opportunities and reduce risks in resource and material consumption.
For example, we are focusing on responsible resource consumption. This is a direct way to reduce materials usage and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Ultimately, our ambition is to eliminate all waste through avoidance, reuse, or recycling. Where we encounter challenges – such as limited regional capabilities for recycling or reclaiming or the mandatory mixing of waste streams for regional sorting – we apply our passion for innovation and collaboration to help develop a better approach.
We track and account for all waste at our production and engineering sites. If materials are recycled, reclaimed, or reused, this is measured as avoiding landfill disposal. The landfill diversion rate for ASM sites for 2022 was 86% relative to our target of 90% by 2025. With regards to hazardous waste, ASM focuses on minimizing and responsibly managing it across its operations, including a goal to have zero hazardous waste to landfill with a primary focus of avoiding generation. In 2022, our global operations generated less than 3 metric tons of hazardous waste.
Reducing packaging waste
Packaging materials can be a major source of waste, especially for large and sensitive products such as ours. At ASM, we are always looking for opportunities to reduce our consumption of resources by reusing packaging materials. This applies to our own sites, but also across the value chain.
We have engineered reusable crates for our products and collaborate with third parties around the world that can disassemble the crates. The materials are then compacted and returned to our production facilities for inspection, refurbishment if necessary, and ultimately for reuse. Using a similar approach, we also facilitate the transport of certain parts and materials from some of our suppliers and contract manufacturers back to ASM for reuse.
It is our ambition to improve and expand these reuse initiatives, and we are working closely with suppliers and customers to promote these sustainable processes. In 2022, ASM’s value-chain reuse of packaging materials resulted in 542 metric tons less landfill disposal, up 109% compared to 2021.
Environmental Management System
We are certified globally to the ISO 14001 environmental management system (EMS), including all our primary engineering and manufacturing locations.
This EMS ensures that we are consistent in our operations and provides a foundation for best practices to be shared and learned across our sites. Read on to discover our practices and policies across different aspects of our sustainable operations.
Sustainability
At ASM, we are committed to upholding high standards in sustainability, labor and ethics practices.
