Qualcomm’s 2023 Corporate Responsibility Report: Our Approach to Operating Sustainably

Originally published in Qualcomm's 2023 Corporate Responsibility Report

We work to be a positive force in protecting the environment by continually looking for ways to develop our ESG programs. We take actions that conserve water, lower emissions, minimize energy consumption and strive to reduce the impact of our waste disposal practices. We believe that environmental sustainability is extremely important, with significant social and economic benefits that require collective action and leadership from our Company and other corporate citizens. 

Our operations are designed to provide and maintain safe, healthy and productive working conditions that meet relevant and applicable requirements. We strive to conserve natural resources and improve our resilience and our environmental, health and safety performance.

2025 Goal
Reduce absolute Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions 30 percent from a 2014  base year.¹⁸

2030 Goals
(SBTi Validated) Reduce absolute Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions 50 percent from a 2020  base year.¹⁸ 

Reduce absolute Scope 3 GHG emissions 25 percent from a 2020 base year.¹⁸

2040 Goal
(SBTi Validated) Reach net-zero global GHG emissions across our value chain.

Sustainability Goals

The best breakthroughs are sustainable.

Addressing the Climate Challenge

We are committed to achieving net-zero GHG emissions across our value chain by 2040. As of 2023, our corporate GHG reduction targets have been approved by the SBTi. The steps we have taken reflect our belief in the urgency of action to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C and our commitment to emission cuts aligned with the latest climate science. We act in a manner consistent with the notion that climate change is a serious environmental, social and economic issue that calls for immediate and concerted action among all sectors of society. 

In line with our commitments, in 2023, we conducted our second CSA, including a quantitative analysis of climate-related physical risks, a quantitative analysis of climate-related transition risks and opportunities and a qualitative analysis of climate-related transition risks and opportunities. These analyses were used to estimate potential financial impacts on our Company, our key suppliers and customers and our value chain. The timeframes considered included the short term (presentday), medium term (2030) and long term (2040). We identified several potential impacts and opportunities to monitor over the time periods assessed. For more information, please see  our TCFD Index.

Our strategy to achieve our environmental commitments includes several key actions: 

• Utilizing renewable energy in our top operational footprint regions via long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs). 
• Limiting emissions in our operations through the replacement of high global warming potential gases in our manufacturing processes, to the extent feasible. 
• Reducing natural gas usage at our San Diego headquarters in California. 
• Working with key suppliers to develop collaborative initiatives to facilitate emissions reductions. 

We have continued our progress on this strategy over the last year, including the additional procurement of renewable energy. In 2023 we achieved our 2025 GHG emissions goal- two years ahead of schedule. We’ve reduced our Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions by over 35 percent compared to  a 2014 baseline.

We are also continuing our efforts that are helping us advance towards our 2040 net-zero target. For Scope 3, we continue to refine our methodology to move away from spend-based calculations, and we are developing a strategy to engage a larger portion of our supply chain to gather more accurate and actionable data. 

We have also continued our implementation of internal carbon pricing across our three manufacturing facilities. This carbon price creates an assumed cost per ton of carbon emissions with an annual rate increase per year, with the objective of changing our internal behavior toward low carbon innovation. Our efforts have earned us several recognitions, such as being included in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Power Partnership Top 30 Tech & Telecom ranking, as well as achieving Climate Registered™ Platinum status from The Climate Registry for setting GHG reduction goals, obtaining verification of our GHG emissions and reporting on our annual progress.

¹⁸ Global

Learn more about how Qualcomm is driving innovation, societal advancement and sustainability in the 2023 Corporate Responsibility Report