Beyond the Surface: The Necessity for Detailed Metrics in Corporate Sustainability Reports

Abstract

The smartphone industry is advancing rapidly, emphasizing the development of smaller, energy-efficient devices with enhanced features. However, this progress often overlooks the significant environmental impacts of these ubiquitous devices. While corporate sustainability reports from mobile product companies aim to address these concerns, they typically provide high-level overviews that obscure critical details, particularly regarding the carbon footprints (CFP) of individual components such as processors and memories. This paper investigates the discrepancy between the overall CFP trends reported and the actual increasing CFP contributions of processors over the years. Through a detailed analysis, the inadequacies in current reporting practices are highlighted, underscoring the necessity for more granular data and metrics in corporate sustainability reports. Specific, detailed metrics are proposed for inclusion in these reports to enhance transparency and help align the chip architecture, design, and manufacturing communities toward addressing relevant sustainability-related challenges.

Chetan Sudarshan

Ph.D. Candidate at Arizona State University

My research interests include sustainable computing, heterogeneous integration, chiplets, and computer architecture