Management Approach

Limited by the industry’s characteristics of relying on stable water resources, water source and volume have become one of the most important keys to the continued operation of Unimicron. There are significant differences in rainfall and flow volume in the current high-water period and low-water period in Taiwan, and many meteorological and hydrological extremes have occurred. In response to the risk of a water shortage caused by Taiwan's topography and climate change, the use and retention of water resources had been evaluated at the initial stage of establishing each of Unimicron's facilities. Not only set up Storage tanks but the water storage capacity of each regional reservoir and the water consumption status of each plant is monitored and managed during normal times to ensure that the plant does not have an immediate water shortage crisis due to lack of water resources, and the ability to withstand water shortages is improved.

Unimicron Has Become the First Taiwanese PCB Manufacturer to Achieve Platinum Certification From the AWS (Alliance for Water Stewardship Standard)

In order to effectively manage the use of water resources and reduce environmental and ecological impacts, as well as to keep enhancing the efficiency of our water use, our Shanying Plant became the first to utilize the AWS International Water Stewardship Standard in 2020 and has been certified by a third party to have achieved Platinum status. By adhering to Green Ecology, Green Competitiveness, and Green Humanity, our three environmental values, we have been practicing sustainable and systematic water management, and have demonstrated five major achievements.

In response to the challenges of severe climate change and resource scarcity in the future, every drop of water that comes into, is used by, and leaves our plant is cherished as well as effectively and precisely managed in an environmentally friendly way so that we can move towards our sustainability goal of zero water waste.

All of Unimicron’s plants are not located in areas with frequent water shortages and drought, and the main water source is tap water. Unimicron’s Taiwan Facilities still also use well water and rainwater. However, because it is not easy to collect information about the impact of well water and rainwater, the assessment was not included this year. In 2021, the water consumption of each plant accounts for a small proportion of the water supply in the water intake area, and there was no significant impact on the water intake area (>5%).

Water Assessment Results

Water Resource Dispatching Measures in Taiwan Facilities

We cooperate with government policies to regulate water use. Although losses and disasters caused by insufficient water sources or excessive rainfall in the areas where the plants are located seldom occur, we still establish contingency measures for water resources dispatch for drought periods. We actively carry out water resources standardization and management through the tracking of regime lights. The emergency response water dispatch team is in charge of water trucks, water tanks, water sources, and other matters regarding water resources dispatching, to ensure uninterrupted operations.

Water Resources Use

In 2021, the percentage of water resources used in Unimicron’s Taiwan facilities was 69.3%, while use amounted to 5.3% for the plants in South China and 25.5% for the 4 plants in East and Central China. The total water consumption in 2021 was 20,039,114 m³. The rainwater ratio was extremely low at 0.03%, whereas the total percentage of water consumption from wells and tap water accounted for 25% and 75%, respectively. The average amount of well water used in the past 5 years was 5.44 million m³ and the average amount of tap water used in the past 5 years has amounted to 14.16 million m³. In 2021, the use of recovered rainwater was about 6,826 m³, which was used to water green areas in substitution for tap water. We hope to save and allocate water through rainwater storage and utilization. From the perspective of the total water use intensity per unit of revenue, the trend has been decreasing over the past 5 years. It decreased by 18.1% in 2021 compared with 2020 and 21% over the past 5 years. The improvement in water efficiency is significant.

Annual Water Consumption and Annual Water Withdrawal from Water Supplies

Note 1: The above data does not include Chungyuan Plant, Chung Hsing Plant, Yangmei Plant and Shanying II Plant in Taiwan.
Note 2: The water sources of the Kunshan and Suzhou plants are Yangcheng Lake and Taihu Lake, and the water sources of the Shenzhen plant are Songgang Wuzhipa Reservoir.
Note 3: Calculation method of rainwater recovery: average annual rainfall in each region × catchment area.
Note 4: Total water consumption = rainwater + well water + tap water.
Note 5: The unit of water consumption is million liters and the unit of water intensity is tons per million revenue.

Water Recycling

Under climate change, climatic characteristics such as temperature and rainfall will change. In addition to increasing temperature, rainfall will also be unevenly distributed in time and space. For example, the increase in rainfall during the high-water period and the decrease in the rainfall during the low-water period have led to a larger monthly difference in river flow, which may further lead to an imbalance in the water supply and demand system. Unimicron continuously improves water-saving technology to increase water efficiency and rainwater recovery storage tanks are installed in each plant to reduce the consumption of water resources. In addition, we continuously add water-recycling systems to reduce the consumption of water resources by recycling low-polluting water sources produced in various processes and treating them to replace the water used for industrial production. The recycling rate of water resources in 2021 was 27% (5,424,251 cubic meters), and the average recycling rate in the past five years was 19.2%.

Water Resource Recovery Ratio

Water Conservation Projects

2021 Water Conservation Projects and Benefits

We value water resource management, and water resources play an important role in the PCB industry. In 2021, we focus on "production process" and "equipment" to improve water efficiency and water recycling, and implement several projects to save 867,000 tons of water in 2021.

2022 Water Conservation Projects and Expected Benefits

Water Saving Project