EHS Management

In support of that effort, the Global EHS Training Organization has the following objectives with regard to EHS training:

• Consistent training programs worldwide
• Quality in content and delivery
• Innovative and efficient delivery methods and options
• Reporting global performance
• Support of new business initiatives such as external EHS Training
• Introduction and Reinforcement of our Safety Culture

All managers and employees are expected to attend both corporate and regulatory required training, and/or support implementation of EHS Training Program in alignment with their roles and responsibilities in the organization. Among the training modules required by EHS are the following: all employees receive hazard communication training and an EHS orientation; all managers company-wide take a 4-hour class on Managing Safety at Applied Materials; all design engineers are required to take a design for environment and safety training,

One innovative method of implementing our training program is the Web Enabled Safety Training (WEST) Tool. The WEST Tool is used to assist managers in identifying their employee's or group's safety training requirements and for managers or safety trainers to pull training compliance reports. Using simple prompts that focus upon the activities their employees are engaged in and with drop-down menus, managers are able to determine what training is appropriate and then emails to the employee are automatically generated. The same enables managers to track training completion; managers are expected to use WEST annually.

The program manages and controls risk through education, solution-based processes and company infrastructure, increasing productivity and competitiveness.

This mission is accomplished by assigning expert product safety engineers to work directly with each and every key product unit within the Company. The principal element of the management system is that product EHS standards, including, safety and environmental performance, are built into Applied Materials’ product release process; a wide array of minimum standards must be satisfied before a product can be released into the marketplace; the standards are a combination of standards drawn from international organizations (e.g. UL, ANSI, IEC, EN, SEMI and others) as well as best known methods identified through our experience in the field.

The Design for Environment (DfE) program ensures that products meet applicable legal and customer requirements as well as enhancing the environmental and energy performance of those same systems. In 2007 Applied Materials declared that we would strive to improve the environmental performance of our products by at least 20% on the average by 2012.  We are implementing this initiative by several means: formally incorporating DfE into the release process, meaning business units have to assess the demand for more efficient products and then must establish targets for achieving that kind of improvement; developing internal tools for our engineers to assess the potential of product changes, component selections and other means; actual performance measurement of the products against an industry standard created for that purpose, Guide for Conservation of Energy, Utilities and Materials Used by Semiconductor Manufacturing Equipment).  Applied Materials’ personnel were instrumental in the development of the S-23 standard and we have been recognized with two leadership awards from the International Sematech Manufacturing Initiative (ISMI) for our contributions in that arena.  Applied Materials is one of only two suppliers that are members of the ISMI’s ESH Technology Center, where we can collaborate closely with many of our customers on DfE advancements.

A recent example of the success created by this initiative is the recently released iSYS™ product.  More than 40 percent of electricity consumed in a semiconductor factory or “fab” is in the subfab (where a lot of mechanical equipment is housed).

The Applied iSYS platform is the industry’s first fully integrated subfab solution for controlling emissions in the semiconductor fab. Networked with an Applied process tool, the iSYS system delivers typical annual savings in power, water and gas consumption equivalent to 200MWh of energy or 220,000 pounds of CO2 emissions, compared to currently available configurations. Key to the iSYS platform’s capability to conserve resources is its unique control system that is synchronized with the wafer processing tool, sensing real-time changes in each process chamber and directing subsystems into pre-defined standby states. Utility metering sensors and software are built into every iSYS platform to enable remote monitoring of cumulative energy savings and to track progress in reaching energy sustainability targets. For these DfE innovations, iSYS was awarded the 2010 Sustainable Technologies Award from the SEMI organization.