ASUS Climate Actions and Carbon-Reduction Strategies

Nov 06, 2024

ASUS is aligned with the vision of the most prestigious organizations including SBTi, RE100, the United Nations and other leading organizations that are taking steps to combat global warming and climate change. We see taking action to reduce our carbon footprint as a responsibility since it not only helps build a more sustainable planet, but it also decreases risks of disrupted business operation or supply chains due to extreme weather. Such efforts help the planet as well as helping us fight against rising costs due to carbon policies. In this article we talk about our goals and actions taken, so read on to discover how ASUS is working towards our sustainability targets.

Achieving net zero means that human generated greenhouse gases (GHG) are balanced out through removal of the same quantity of emissions over a specified period. To hit this target ASUS has a long-term plan focusing on energy efficiency, use of renewable energy, and investment in technology to remove carbon emissions. In 2025, we plan to enhance all our products’ energy efficiency further - to an average of 30% above ENERGY STAR® standards. We also aim to require and support our key suppliers to achieve a 30% carbon intensity reduction compared to 2020. In addition, we plan to expand the use of renewable energy and implement 100% renewable energy usage in global operational centers by 2035.

Internal carbon pricing (ICP) is a method used to guide internal decision-making processes to factor in carbon reduction goals through considering costs of carbon emissions. Carbon footprint serves as the basis for carbon pricing calculations internally in ASUS. The internal carbon price for our laptops and desktops is $80 USD per metric ton of CO2e, while the products’ carbon footprint calculations are certified by third party organizations. We make decarbonization a priority when we design and manufacture products through carbon reduction strategies such as using eco-friendly materials, improving our products’ energy efficiency, and supporting our suppliers’ carbon reduction progress.

Enhancing Energy Efficiency

Improving product energy efficiency helps reduce carbon emissions during a product’s lifecycle. ENERGY STAR® is the world’s most prestigious and strictest energy efficiency certification, and ASUS continuously designs products to meet and excel its standards. For instance, our innovative dual screened laptop that won multiple awards, Zenbook DUO, the ultra slim Zenbook 14 OLED, and many other laptops are ENERGY STAR® certified. Zenbook S 13 OLED is specifically designed to be an eco-friendly thin and lightweight laptop, and it exceeds ENERGY STAR® standards by a whopping 60%! Overall, our commercial and consumer laptops launched in 2023 exceeded ENERGY STAR® criteria by 42% on average.

ASUS is also making progress in reducing carbon emissions from our office operations each year. Since 2015, ASUS Headquarters has built an energy management system based on ISO 50001, which provides practical methods to improve energy usage. At our headquarters, ASUS aims to cut back on energy use by 1% annually. Corresponding efforts include taking steps such as replacing inefficient chillers with environmentally friendly refrigeration in 2023. Our endeavors have shown evident progress, resulting in a 17.58% decrease in energy consumption in 2023 compared to 2022.

Designing Low-Carbon Products

Plastic is still used in ASUS products, over 30% of our laptops consists of plastic. To cut back on carbon emissions resulting from plastic, we have increased the usage of post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastics. This example of circular economy is a solution that reduces carbon without compromising product durability. For example, the keycaps of Zenbook S 13 OLED are made from PCR plastics and its speakers are made from PCR plastics plus ocean-bound plastics. ASUS has used more than 2,400 tons of recycled plastic in our products since 2017, resulting in an accumulative reduction of 17,000 tons of carbon emissions, visit our ESG website for further information on ASUS’s usage of environmentally friendly materials.

Supporting Suppliers for Carbon Reduction

ASUS’s supply chain is a main source of carbon emission. To address this, we have initiated the Key Supplier Carbon Reduction Engagement and Counseling Program in 2021 to establish a low-carbon supply chain. ASUS conducted one-on-one discussions with suppliers to develop feasible actions and targets based on respective business models, considering options such as increased use of renewable energy. In 2023, 425 suppliers joined this program and impressive results were achieved – 24% of our suppliers used solar energy as a renewable energy source, 40% of our suppliers obtained ISO 14064 for quantifying and reporting greenhouse gas emission, and 37% of our suppliers achieved ISO 50001 certification.

ASUS has reached great milestones for carbon reduction in 2023 including our Near-Term Science-Based Emission Reduction Targets being validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), receiving Leadership Ratings from CDP (an international non-profit organization for assessing environmental impact), achieving 30% renewable energy use in global operational centers, and a reduction of 26% in carbon emission intensity from our key suppliers compared to 2020 which is our baseline year. Our carbon reduction strategies have proved to be effective while there are still steps to be taken to reach our goals of 100% renewable energy use by 2035, achieving net zero operation in 2050, and more.

Click the link below to learn how ASUS designs sustainable solutions based on circular economy.