Intel Launches First Global Challenges, Marks a New Era of Shared Corporate Responsibility

Today, Intel released its annual Corporate Responsibility Report. The report builds on Intel’s decades of transparency in corporate responsibility and details progress Intel has made in the past decade to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, restore billions of gallons of water to local communities and achieve gender pay equity across its global workforce, among other milestones. The report also establishes a new 2030 strategy and goals for continued progress for the next decade – from achieving net positive water use, 100% green power and zero waste to landfills across Intel’s global manufacturing operations to doubling the number of women and underrepresented minorities in senior leadership roles and scaling the impact of its supply chain human rights programs.

For the first time, Intel has defined global challenges that expand its commitment in resources, expertise, global reach and influence beyond its own operations to address challenges that can only be solved by collaborating across major organizations, industries and countries.

“The world is facing challenges that we understand better each day as we collect and analyze more data, but they go unchecked without a collective response – from climate change to deep digital divides around the world to the current pandemic that has fundamentally changed all our lives,” said Intel CEO Bob Swan. “We can solve them, but only by working together.”

Intel committed to engage industries, governments and communities to tackle three specific global challenges over the next decade:

Revolutionize health and safety with technology 

• Intel will work with partners in healthcare, life sciences and government to apply technology in strategic manufacturing, transportation and healthcare initiatives, including accelerating cures for diseases and improving health. Its efforts will include the company’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 will lead a global coalition of industry leaders toward a common objective: The safety of autonomous vehicles should not be a point of differentiation but a shared goal. Through collaboration with industry and governments and development of new safety technologies and standards – such as Responsibility-Sensitive Safety (RSS) and the forthcoming IEEE 2846 – that will provide clear guidance on what it means for an autonomous vehicle to drive safely, we have the potential to save more lives with autonomous vehicles when compared to human drivers.

Make technology fully inclusive and expand digital readiness

• Intel will work with other companies to accelerate adoption of inclusive business practices across industries by creating and implementing a Global Inclusion Index open standard. Using common metrics, it will allow the industry to track progress in area such as achieving greater levels of women and minorities in senior and technical positions, accessible technology and equal pay. Intel has already been collaborating with Lenovo to convene CDIOs and HR professionals to drive industry transformation and stay at the forefront of this work.
• Intel will partner with governments and communities to address the digital divide and expand access to technology skills needed for current and future jobs. An example is the Intel® AI For Youth program, which provides AI curriculum and resources to over 100,000 high school and vocational students in 10 countries and will continue to scale globally. By 2030, Intel plans to partner with governments in 30 countries and 30,000 institutions worldwide and is committed to empower more than 30 million people with AI skills training.

Achieve carbon-neutral computing to address climate change

• Intel will work with PC manufacturers to create the most sustainable and energy-efficient PC in the world – one that eliminates carbon, water and waste in its design and use. Specifically, the company is exploring a sustainability roadmap that would include enabling sensor technology to reduce power usage, partnering with material vendors on recyclable packaging and developing longer-term, energy-efficient architectures.
• Intel will collaborate with industry and policymakers to apply technology to reduce emissions across high-impact industries.

Technology is not just at the heart of breakthroughs. It plays a vital role in the global communities, governments, and services that people depend on every day to solve current crises while proactively tackling future ones.

“Intel and many others in technology-driven industries see the opportunity to leverage our R&D, creativity, expertise, and influence to collaborate on these critical issues and will become even stronger and more relevant as a result,” Swan said. “For Intel, it’s embedded in our purpose to create world-changing technology that enriches the lives of every person on Earth.”

With an expansive global reach, robust supply chain and strategic partnerships throughout the industry, Intel will leverage this unique mix of capabilities to tackle many of today’s problems and create the technology and partnerships that will be fundamental in rising to the challenges of tomorrow.

Intel’s latest Corporate Responsibility Report includes details of the new 2030 strategy and goals that will accelerate the adoption of responsible, inclusive and sustainable practices, enabled by Intel’s technology and the expertise and passion of its employees around the world.