BOISE, Idaho, April 22, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: MU), today released “Fast Forward: Micron’s 2021 Sustainability Report,” underscoring the company’s commitment to advance innovation, people, communities and manufacturing while demonstrating resilience in extraordinary times.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Micron has driven progress on sustainability programs, including making initial investments towards its goal to spend approximately $1 billion on environmental initiatives by 2028. These include reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 75% versus 2018, as well as achieving 75% water conservation and 95% waste diversion globally in 2030. The company also targets sourcing 100% renewable energy across its U.S. manufacturing operations by the end of 2025. Micron decreased 2020 GHG emissions per unit of production by 36% versus 2018. In addition, Micron increased its material and waste reuse, recycling and recovery to 84% in calendar year 2020, up three percentage points from the year prior.
Micron also made meaningful progress in its diversity, equality and inclusion commitments. The company achieved comprehensive global pay equity for all underrepresented groups in total employee compensation across base pay, bonuses and stock rewards. To support development of underserved communities, Micron allocated over $250 million in cash and cash equivalents to be managed by minority-owned financial firms. Additionally, Micron increased representation of females on its board. As of February 2021, women represent 50% of Micron’s board members. Micron also saw an 84% growth in overall employee resource group (ERG) membership in 2020. These employee-led ERGs are driven by volunteers, focusing on people with shared identities or experiences and their allies. ERGs are key to promoting inclusion within Micron and the communities where its employees live and work.
“We view sustainability as a cornerstone of Micron’s business model and are backing that with a $1 billion commitment and implementation of a science-based approach to track our progress,” said Micron President and Chief Executive Officer Sanjay Mehrotra. “In 2020, we’ve made significant strides against these goals. Despite pandemic-related uncertainty, Micron achieved a three-fold annual improvement in energy savings, advanced on our greenhouse gas emissions reduction target, and achieved comprehensive pay equity, a key step toward full workforce inclusion.”
Micron set new milestones in delivering positive change to its communities. In calendar year 2020, the Micron Foundation distributed nearly $24 million to charitable organizations, including a $10 million COVID-19 relief fund. They also quadrupled team member matching initiatives and reached more than 650,000 students and educators through annual support of global science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programs.
Accelerating Sustainability and Technology Leadership
For the first time in the company’s history, Micron solidified its leadership across DRAM and NAND technologies. Micron’s 1α DRAM technology delivers a 40% improvement in memory density while enabling the industry’s lowest-power mobile DRAM, with a 15% improvement in power savings1. Micron’s 176-layer 3D NAND flash memory improves read/write latency by more than 35% and data transfer rates by 33%2. Together, they form a data foundation for new, more efficient device experiences and innovative infrastructure — from the data center to the intelligent edge.
In addition, Micron recently launched its automotive LPDDR5, which provides a more than 20% improvement in power efficiency3. This energy-efficient DRAM enables high-performance compute for intelligent vehicles while minimizing power consumption, resulting in lower GHG transportation emissions. Micron’s groundbreaking graphics memory GDDR6X, launched last September, delivers lower power per transaction (pJ/bit) than previous generations, making it ideal for energy-sapping, high-bandwidth applications. GDDR6X also features the ability to scale power down or up, allowing users to dial back performance to save energy.
Growing Recognition
Micron was recognized on the North America Dow Jones Sustainability Index, awarded Responsible Business Alliance platinum certification for all manufacturing facilities and listed as a 2019–2020 Certified Great Place to Work. In March 2021, Micron was ranked in the top 10% of the semiconductor industry based on Sustainalytics’ environmental, social and governance scores. The company is also a 2019–2020 FTSE4Good Index Series Constituent (FTSE Russell) and was named on Newsweek’s list of America's Most Responsible Companies in 2020.
The Micron sixth annual sustainability report is prepared in accordance with Global Reporting Initiative Core Standards and the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board semiconductor industry standard.
About Micron Technology, Inc.
We are an industry leader in innovative memory and storage solutions transforming how the world uses information to enrich life for all. With a relentless focus on our customers, technology leadership, and manufacturing and operational excellence, Micron delivers a rich portfolio of high-performance DRAM, NAND and NOR memory and storage products through our Micron® and Crucial® brands. Every day, the innovations that our people create fuel the data economy, enabling advances in artificial intelligence and 5G applications that unleash opportunities — from the data center to the intelligent edge and across the client and mobile user experience. To learn more about Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: MU), visit micron.com.
© 2021 Micron Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Information, products, and/or specifications are subject to change without notice. Micron, the Micron logo, and all other Micron trademarks are the property of Micron Technology, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding our environmental goals. These forward-looking statements are not a guarantee that our environmental goals will be realized and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Please refer to the documents we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission, specifically our most recent Form 10-K and Form 10-Q. These documents contain and identify important factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those contained in these forward-looking statements. These certain factors can be found at www.micron.com/certainfactors. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements. We are under no duty to update any of the forward-looking statements after the date of this release to conform these statements to actual results.
Micron Media Relations Contact
Erica Pompen
Micron Technology, Inc.
+1 (408) 834-1873
epompen@micron.com
Micron Investor Relations Contact
Farhan Ahmad
Micron Technology, Inc.
+1 (408) 834-1927
farhanahmad@micron.com
1 Compared to the previous 1z generation of Micron mobile DRAM
2 Comparison is based on Micron’s high-volume, floating-gate 96-layer NAND. When comparing with 128-layer replacement-gate NAND, read latency and write latency for Micron’s 176-layer NAND both improve by over 25%.
3 Compared to the previous generation of LPDDR4x