ESH Project Engineer "LEEDing" the Way

ISMI's James Beasley Discusses Eco-friendly Solutions to Sustainable Manufacturing

In the last five years the green-building world has matured and taken on a professional sheen. That can be credited in large part to the U.S. Green Building Council and its flagship program for rating commercial buildings’ environmental performance, LEED®, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

The LEED Green Building Rating System is already the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings. Prior to LEED, there were no national standards for green buildings, and any claim was as plausible as the next. LEED changed that by addressing the demand and defining an accurate rating system—a checklist—for going green.

Green ‘LEEDers’

Since 2000, there has been an explosion of professionals trained to become “LEED accredited.” Overnight, LEED has become a dominant brand of green building rating systems. The program promotes sustainability by recognizing performance for key areas of human and environmental health. This blossoming further solidifies a robust future for green buildings.

Architects, engineers, facility managers and building owners who master LEED concepts and processes become knowledgeable practitioners of sustainable facility design and construction. James Beasley, International SEMATECH Manufacturing Initiative’s (ISMI) Environmental Safety and Health Project Manager, is among the growing number of LEED® Accredited Professionals (AP). Beasley, a 25-year veteran in semiconductor manufacturing, facilities equipment engineering, specialty gas and chemical management, and ESH, oversees ISMI’s Green Fab and sustainable technology activities. For Beasley, his role as a LEED AP for ISMI’s ESH Program, means helping semiconductor engineers and other high-tech professionals expand their environmental credentials.

LEED is a design process that produces sustainable buildings that conserve resources, reduce operating costs, improve environmental quality, and overall, help address global warming.

Beasley sees LEED as a significant energy modeling tool. “There really is no standard for what’s green and what isn’t green. LEED certification is really the only way to quantifiably show that a building has some standard level of ‘greeness.’”

Furthermore, serving as a catalyst for the semiconductor ecosystem, ISMI’s ESH program helps chip manufacturers understand these standards, determine green project goals, identify green design strategies, measure and monitor progress and document success.

So how do semiconductor manufacturers and suppliers obtain such a goal?

  • By demonstrating a sustained commitment to resource conservation;
  • By implementing effective internal processes to characterize and improve the environmental performance of their products;
  • By practicing industry standards for resource conservation;
  • By improving performance and roadmaps for their semiconductor manufacturing equipment product lines.

Much of the groundwork to help drive the formal standards and enable opportunities for green fabs has been done by ISMI. Its innovations include:

  • The ISMI Supplier ESH Leadership Initiative launched in 2004 established a forum where ISMI member companies and the semiconductor industry’s equipment and materials suppliers identify and address shared ESH challenges.
  • The ISMI Resource Conservation and Manufacturing Sustainability Project was created to identify and characterize cost-effective opportunities to reduce resource consumption (energy, water, chemicals, consumables, etc). ISMI experts collaborate with member companies and the equipment supplier community to demonstrate and commercialize promising technologies.
  • The ISMI Green Fab Initiative applies current best practices for sustainable fabs to guidelines in the Leadership in Energy and Engineering Design (LEED) rating system established by the US Green Building Council. ISMI led task groups are creating a LEED-compatible “green fab” building standard that would include right-sizing of facilities and systems, energy supply efficiency and management, safety and risk management, fab environmental monitoring, decreased water usage, and innovative wastewater treatment and recovery systems.

For chip fabs, receiving a LEED certification, is the ultimate of all achievements—the highest environmental honor a building can achieve. Beasley compares it to the prestigious “Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval,” a highly recognized award provided by a distinguished American institution whose purpose is to improve the lives of consumers and their families through education and product evaluation.

Now that the green movement has become a market, eco-friendly manufacturing is a requirement of corporate responsibility, expected by shareholders, customers and communities. These drivers are the reason the microchip industry faces the challenge to ‘go clean by going green’ and show its support for eco-manufacturing.

"The biggest advantage is that if designed right, it will then have a long-term economic benefit," says Beasley. "The other benefit is health. In theory, a green building has cleaner indoor air and is a safer environment in which to live."

It’s Not (Always) Easy Being Green

The biggest challenge, Beasley says, is justifying the ROI since it is difficult to characterize the cost. A common misconception about a green building is that it has to cost more. Since the green movement is now a market, a lot of businesses have learned that customers and communities are willing to pay for “green.”

James Beasley, ISMI’s ESH Technology Manager, plays a part in reducing environmental impact by helping green buildings to triumph.

More information

A short course on Understanding LEED will be offered during ISMI's Manufacturing Week, Oct. 20-23, in Austin, Texas.