We believe the semiconductor industry is poised to take on new challenges. Using the latest semiconductor technologies, which produce tiny circuits that can perform advanced functions with relatively low power consumption, our industry can help address some of the most compelling challenges we face as a society – issues relating to energy efficiency, mobile populations, national and personal security, and caring for the health of a growing and rapidly aging world population.
In particular, our industry has the potential to directly address our dependence on fossil fuels and minimize carbon emissions. Semiconductors are already reducing the power consumption of server farms and making consumer appliances operate more efficiently. They're also accelerating the deployment of energy-saving lighting technologies, and helping enable the shift to hybrid and electric vehicles. It is our collective responsibility, as an industry, to continue this trend of being proactive as we create value for consumers, the environment, and society as a whole. We believe that, by building on innovation and providing technologies that directly address societal demands, some of the most exciting times for the semiconductor industry lie ahead.
Sustainability in NXP’s strategy
Sustainability is the responsibility of the Executive Vice President Operations. The Sustainability Board establishes strategy and sets targets for sustainability, while the Sustainability Office performs operational functions. These include managing environmental, health, and safety conditions, overseeing the management of chemicals, monitoring and controlling sustainability related data, supporting customers and contracts, coordinating social investment, liaising with industry associations, and delivering internal and external communications on sustainability.
Our Code of Conduct (the "Code") specifies the rules of behavior that we, as individuals and as an organization, commit to. The BCC states that we are dedicated to being a responsible social partner and to working in a way that is economically, socially, and ethically sustainable. The NXP Ethics Commitee maintains the Code, proposing revisions and managing the processes related to its implementation.
Our Risk and Safety Board is, among other things, responsible for standards, policies, and improvement plans that relate to risk and health and safety. It is supported by our Insurance and Risk Management Department, our Business Continuity Management Office, and our Environment, Safety & Health (ESH) Councils, which consist of senior ESH managers from our worldwide sites and the Sustainability Office.
Commitment
At NXP we make every effort to ensure that our working practices are responsible and sustainable. Our ambition is to go beyond compliance and to establish a global benchmark.
We foster ethical principles and respect for the environment, people, and our community while we pursue economic success.
Sustainability is a part of the way we conduct our business, the way we manage our company, and the way we interact with society at large.
We commit ourselves to sustainability because we recognize that this is inherent in our drive to create Secure Connections for a Smarter World.
Our policy
| Values | NXP fosters a culture of sustainability, with a customer-focused passion to win, built on our values of raising the bar, engaging curiosity, taking initiative, working together, and developing deep core competence. |
| Legislation | NXP complies with applicable legislation, regulations, and codes of practice, and, when appropriate, goes beyond specified standards. |
| Ethics | NXP implements business practices according to defined codes of conduct within the company and throughout its global supply chain. |
| Products | NXP is committed to creating products and packages that are of the highest quality, and ensures that, with each new generation, the environmental impact of their use and disposal is further reduced. |
| Employees | NXP employs a diverse workforce and invests in its people, creating a workplace where every employee is encouraged to be the best that they can be. We believe in an environment that is safe, secure, and in which every employee is treated humanely. |
| Environment | NXP conserves natural resources and reduces the environmental impact of its operations. |
| Society | NXP actively promotes and engages, both individually and with partners, in social contribution activities that help strengthen the communities we operate in. |
| Transparency | NXP sets targets, measures, and verifies its sustainability performance and publishes the results. |
| Dialog | NXP engages in open, ongoing dialogs with employees, customers, investors, the public, and other key stakeholders to continuously improve its sustainability performance. |
Stakeholders' engagement and transparency
We operate in many different countries and ship to most countries in the world, and have close relationships with customers, other multinational electronics companies, and industry associations.
Our business brings us into contact with a very wide range of stakeholders and requires that we be sensitive to those interactions. We believe that dialogue leads to mutual understanding, and with it a mutual commitment to sustainable development. We made stakeholder dialogue a part of our management processes and our Sustainability Policy.
We address the interests of each group through various methods and make regular assessments of our effectiveness. We continue to strengthen our approach, creating additional structure where needed and improving the overall quality of each interaction. Some examples of our stakeholder interactions are given here.
Our employees
We communicate with our employees in several ways, using print and web-based media along with face-to-face events. For instance, we have company-wide circulation of a weekly email news bulletin (NXP Now), and we share recent external and internal news items on NXP’s intranet home page. Many of our operations have their own news bulletins and intranet sites, populated with local and global NXP news. We deliver regular communiqués from our Management Team under the banner of MT Update. Employees are invited to send comments or questions to the Management Team. The Management Team’s feedback and answers are then posted online where they can be read by all employees.
Our Quarterly Town Hall Meetings are a particularly effective way for us to deliver information to everyone in the company. Feedback shows that employees appreciate these meetings, which give them the opportunity to interact with colleagues, hear about the company’s plans, and pose questions or express concerns directly to senior management. Alongside this form of open discussion, we conduct regular employee engagement surveys that measure the clarity and effectiveness of our communication and capture feedback for direct application within the organization. Results of such surveys are reported in the employees chapter.
Our customers
To ensure we develop products that meet or exceed customer expectations, our Marketing and Sales teams work closely with our key accounts to align our development roadmaps.
Our Customer Loyalty program uses vendor-rating surveys and dedicated customer meetings to verify that we are delivering with excellence and satisfying our customers. The vendor-rating surveys include questions on environmental and social responsibility, so we can identify areas of concern and implement corrective actions. Customers rank us on various aspects of our operations, including product quality, business fulfillment, and business creation.
We use face-to-face meetings to create close relationships with our customers, and extend those relationships through our website and with appearances at industry tradeshows and other events. These events are an effective way to show our latest product developments to existing and potential customers, and give us the opportunity to exchange ideas with our colleagues, track industry trends, and discover new ideas. Members of our Management Team often deliver keynotes and presentations at these events, highlighting how we address key issues associated with energy, mobility, security, and health.
Industry organizations
We are a member of a large number of industry organizations, participate in more than 65 standardization bodies and consortia, and are active in several other initiatives around the world. Where relevant, we help define specifications, establish new markets, promote fair trade, protect the environment, and ensure health and safety in the workplace. Our participation in industry organizations lets us interact with governments and regulatory bodies on a number of key issues. We often advocate stringent regulations but occasionally lobby to prevent bans on substances that are essential to our processes and currently have no alternatives. In such cases we typically recommend seeking commitments to strictly minimize use and emission until viable alternatives are found.
We chair the European Semiconductor Industry Association (ESIA) committee for Environment, Safety & Health (ESH). The committee is involved in several cooperative technical projects and addresses such issues as chemical management and preparation for the EU’s REACH program, energy savings, use of PFCs, health and safety, quantitative targets, and EU legislation.
As a member of the ESIA, we are also a member of the World Semiconductor Council (WSC), an organization that participates in several kinds of outreach activities.
Other groups
To address other stakeholder groups, such as public authorities, industry analysts, bondholders, and the media, we use a global in-house team that cooperates closely with a few strategic partners, such as a PR agency. In external relations, we use a worldwide “hub-and-spoke” network of people, including experienced public affairs specialists, who actively engage with selected representatives of our stakeholder groups.
Reporting standards
In developing content for this section, we have used the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Reporting Principles of materiality, sustainability context, stakeholder inclusiveness, and completeness.
We use our EcoVision monitoring systems to gauge our performance in Environment, Safety & Health (ESH) categories. Our Reporting Manuals contain reporting instructions for these systems, including definitions, procedures, and calculation methods. Our reference year is 2006, when we separated from Philips.
From 2007 on, environmental data has been reported and validated by the Sustainability Office quarterly. Data is reported on every manufacturing facility that a) we own, rent, or lease and manage, b) has 50 or more people working in production, and c) is consolidated for our financial reporting.
Health & Safety data is reported monthly and validated by the Sustainability Office quarterly. Within a current reporting year, data for new reporting organizations is added to the totals in the first quarter the information is consolidated, and data for divested reporting organizations is subtracted from the totals in the first quarter the information is deconsolidated.
In 2013, data reported covered 98% of our full-time equivalents (FTEs), including employees in sites where we have a minority share. We raised that number in 2014 to cover 99% of FTEs. We did this by upgrading existing registration systems and evaluating ways to address the non-registration of temporary FTEs. We aim for 100% coverage.
Significant changes that have had an influence on reporting since 2009 are the closing of our sites in Beijing and Vienna, which were sold in 2011, as well of the sale of NuTune Indonesia, which took place in 2010. In 2009, NXP divested the sites in Fishkill and Caen. Our production in Hong Kong moved to another NXP assembly site in 2012.
Validation
The Sustainability Office validates data and information entered in the EcoVision and Health & Safety databases according to the frequency given in the reporting standards. Validation consists of the following steps:
- Check for completeness of data (locations and parameters)
- Compare data from the reporting period with data from previous periods
- Determine whether changes in data are significant
- Seek explanations for significant data movements
- Compare linked data (e.g. number of illnesses and injuries versus lost work days)
- Investigate notable events
The Sustainability Office performs monthly reviews with all front/back-end industrial sites. During these reviews, we examine the results from our EcoVision and Health & Safety databases, discuss the progress of improvement projects, and set expectations for the next period.
To ensure reliable, accurate, and complete reporting, the Sustainability Office also conducts internal data audits of the industrial sites and the larger office and R&D sites. The audits check for proper reporting procedures and data trails and, in some cases, are supported by representatives from the quality and/or the ESH community.
