Intel’s annual Corporate Responsibility Report offers a global challenge and a 10-year-plan with a dive into sustainability and more. It also takes a deep look into the company’s COVID-19 response.
Corporations need to take a collaborative approach to solve world challenges and should start by tackling the current coronavirus pandemic, according to Intel’s most recent edition to its annual Corporate Responsibility Report (CRR). Intel has committed more than $60 million to accelerate access to technology needed to combat the pandemic and support frontline healthcare workers and local communities.
The latest CRR details a 2030 strategy, a 10-year-plan, as well as goals to accelerate the adoption of sustainable practices. As part of the priority it has given to COVID-19, Intel has invested more than $100 million additional for employees.
Additional top priorities outlined in the 80-page document are climate change and inclusion and diversity in the workplace.
SEE: Coronavirus: Critical IT policies and tools every business needs (TechRepublic)
Intel plans partnerships in healthcare, life sciences, and government to facilitate technology in strategic manufacturing, transportation, and healthcare initiatives, which includes helping to find cures for diseases and improving healthcare.
These efforts include Intel’s recently announced Pandemic Response Technology Initiative, which applies cloud, artificial intelligence (AI), and high-performance technology solutions to better diagnose, treat, and cure COVID-19 and to help prepare for future pandemics.
Intel is well aware of the loftiness of its goals. “When we developed our 2020 corporate responsibility goals nearly a decade ago, we knew they were ambitious,” said Suzanne Fallender, director of corporate responsibility at Intel.
“Much of the process preceded COVID-19. But the pandemic underscored the critical importance of collaborating with others to apply the power of technology to address the critical global challenges,” said Fallender.
“Our COVID-19 response is a good example and one that we are applying real-time learnings for the next steps,” Fallender said. “We joined the XPRIZE Pandemic Alliance, to accelerate solutions for COVID-19 and future pandemics and to grant free access to our intellectual property portfolio for COVID-19 researchers.”
She continued, “But the world and our company has dramatically changed over the past 10 years. Our significant growth and transformation from a PC-centric company to a data-centric company made it even more challenging to continue to reduce our impact while we grew and expanded into new markets.”
“We decreased carbon emissions on a per unit basis by 39%,” Fallender said. “We reduced water use by 38% on a per unit basis. In some cases, we reached our goals even earlier than expected. We aimed for full workforce representation of women and underrepresented minorities, and we did that, two years ahead of schedule.”
“The world faces challenges we understand better each day as we collect and analyze more data, but they go unchecked without a collective response,” said Intel CEO Bob Swan in a press release. “We can solve them, but only by working together.”
The report also establishes new 2030 strategy and goals, from achieving net-positive water use, 100% green power, and zero waste to landfills across Intel’s global manufacturing operations. The number of women and underrepresented minorities in senior leadership roles will double.
The report outlines a “rise strategy and 2030 goals” commitment for industries, governments and communities to tackle three specific global challenges over the next decade:
Revolutionize health and safety with technology
Data and information will continue to play a crucial role to track, diagnose, and treat the coronavirus pandemic.
With the intent to save more lives, Intel will lead a global coalition of industry leaders to the shared goal of safety for autonomous vehicles.
Make technology fully inclusive and expand digital readiness
Intel intends to accelerate the adoption of inclusive business practices across industries, create and implement a Global Inclusion Index open standard. Intel collaborated with Lenovo to convene chief diversity, inclusion officers, and human resource professionals to make inclusivity a priority.
- Intel plans to partner with governments and communities to address the digital divide and expand access to technology skills. The Intel AI For Youth program, provides AI curriculum and resources to more than 100,000 high school and vocational students in 10 countries, and continues to scale globally. By 2030, Intel plans to partner with governments in 30 countries and 30,000 global institutions and wants to offer more than 30 million people AI skills training.
Achieve carbon-neutral computing to address climate change
PC manufacturers should create a highly sustainable and energy-efficient PC: One that eliminates carbon, water, and waste in design and use. Intel will review a sustainability roadmap to include enabling sensor technology to reduce power usage, partner with material vendors on recyclable packaging, and develop longer-term, energy-efficient architectures.
Lastly, Intel will meet with industry and policymakers to apply technology to reduce emissions in high-impact industries.
In summation, Intel’s industry-wide commitment is to achieve the following by 2030:
Fully inclusive technology and expand digital readiness
Carbon-neutral computing to address climate change
Revolutionize health and safety with technology
Doubling the number of women and underrepresented minorities in senior leadership roles
Absolute carbon emissions reduction
Achieving 100% renewable energy use
Net-positive water use
Zero-total waste to landfill
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