As Transparency Demands Rise, Chipmakers Turn to Product-Level Carbon Insight

Semiconductors are foundational to the technologies reshaping the global economy – from artificial intelligence and cloud infrastructure to electric vehicles, industrial automation, and next-generation energy systems. As demand for chips grows, the semiconductor industry is entering a new phase in which carbon data becomes more than a reporting exercise. Customers across the semiconductor value chain are increasingly using carbon data and transparency as strategic business inputs for procurement, product design, engagement, supplier management, and decarbonization.

Product carbon footprints, or PCFs, are central to this shift. Customers increasingly want credible, product-level emissions information to support their own climate goals, procurement decisions, and regulatory obligations. Automakers, industrial companies, and technology customers are asking more detailed questions about the components inside their end products and systems. Yet, while the initial hurdle is calculating PCFs, the larger opportunity is to use PCF insights to understand where emissions occur, which materials and suppliers contribute most to a product's footprint, and what the most meaningful decarbonization actions would be.

For semiconductor companies, building this visibility is challenging. A single chip can move through hundreds of specialized process steps and depend on a complex network of suppliers, materials, gases, chemicals and manufacturing locations. Data is fragmented, supplier-specific information may be limited, and emission factors can vary by geography, production technology, and energy source. Product-level carbon accounting also requires thoughtful decisions about system boundaries, data hierarchy, allocation rules, and the appropriate use of primary and secondary data when direct product-level activity data is not yet available.

Recognizing both the importance and complexity of the challenge, onsemi has taken an initial step toward building a scalable PCF capability by leveraging a PCF solution provider, Muir AI, for its data collection and processing platform. The platform helps onsemi organize product-level data, engage suppliers, and scale PCF development across a broad range of products. onsemi’s PCF methodology defines the calculation approach, system boundaries, data hierarchy, and allocation principles that guide how product-level emissions are assessed. This work combines operational data, supplier engagement, and life cycle assessment principles to improve visibility into product-level emissions across the value chain and transform complex supply chain information into actionable sustainability insights that will enable hot spot identification and targeted reduction engagement.

Developing actionable PCFs requires more than sophisticated modeling. It takes deeper collaboration across the value chain. To advance its work, onsemi piloted direct supplier engagement inviting suppliers to provide information regarding component materials. When available, primary data can be incorporated directly into product-level assessments, improving data quality and representativeness, and reducing reliance on secondary data and industry-average emission factors. More importantly, it illustrates where emissions reside in the value chain, helping companies determine which suppliers to prioritize for engagement, which materials to target, and where engineering and sourcing decisions between suppliers can lower Scope 3 emissions.

The initiative highlights an important shift in how companies can approach carbon transparency. Historically, organizations evaluated emissions of their own operational and manufacturing footprint, but supply chain and embodied emissions data provide a more comprehensive and transparent view. Within embodied emissions, there are challenges with reliance on industry averages and secondary datasets. Those inputs remain useful and necessary, but they can obscure important differentiations among suppliers, geographical, and material alternatives. While onsemi continues to utilize secondary datasets, the long-term vision is to progressively increase the use of supplier-specific primary data when available to improve transparency into upstream Scope 3 emissions.

Today’s PCF calculations establish a baseline for identifying emissions hotspots across purchased material and chemical goods. This visibility would enable targeted supplier engagement beyond a broad corporate supplier view to a more granular level and is foundational to explore potential future decarbonization efforts in Scope 3 Category 1 Purchased Goods & Services through more informed procurement, engineering, and supplier strategies. As supplier-specific primary data becomes available over time, PCFs can help direct action toward the emissions hotspots and supplier relationships with the greatest opportunities across the value chain.

Primary supplier data provides a more precise understanding of the emissions embodied in products while also fostering greater collaboration across the industry. Manufacturers gain better visibility into upstream supplier impacts; suppliers gain insight into how their materials, energy decisions, production processes, and own upstream supply chains influence the sustainability commitments of downstream customers. This shared visibility can help turn PCF development from a transactional data request into an engine for practical collaboration.

One insight emerging from onsemi’s work is that significant emission hotspots may exist upstream, particularly within materials and chemical supply chains. This highlights that some of the most impactful opportunities for decarbonization are beyond a manufacturer's own operations and within the upstream supply chain. While improving operational efficiency remains important, product-level analysis suggests that the future focus is deeper engagement with suppliers, raw material producers, and specialty chemical providers.

The value extends beyond emissions reductions. Better visibility can enable better design decisions, targeted procurement strategies, and greater transparency for customers. For customers, product-level transparency can support more informed conversations about embodied emissions and shared reduction opportunities. For procurement and supply chain teams, it focuses engagement on the suppliers and inputs that are most material. For engineering and product teams, it can provide a clearer view of how material and design choices may influence embodied carbon.

The ability to develop product-level carbon transparency enables a strategic business view. Calculation is the foundation, but insight is what enables action. By building PCF capabilities, increasing the use of primary data where available, and applying sustainability insight to procurement, engineering, supplier engagement, and customer collaboration , onsemi is helping advance carbon transparency and enable more informed decarbonization efforts across the value chain. 

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