March 2008
Maine’s Governor John Baldacci and Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) have recognized National Semiconductor Corp. for shrinking its "carbon footprint" and reducing energy consumption. In an effort to reduce greenhouse gases, National’s manufacturing facility in South Portland, Maine, has reduced its carbon dioxide emissions by 43,700 metric tons since 2000. As such, the company has been named the state of Maine’s “largest carbon cutter.”
National, which reduced more than 7,000 tons of carbon in the past year alone, developed and implemented several projects to help reduce its carbon emissions. These efforts include increasing efficiencies in the heating of deionized water, reducing set-point temperatures for water heating and converting the energy of incoming cold water from a local lake to allow free cooling of manufacturing equipment.
National has reduced its carbon emissions by 56 percent since participating in the governor’s “Carbon Challenge” and DEP’s “STEP-UP” programs, two state initiatives created to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In 2003, Maine became the first state in the U.S. to set into statute the goals achieved by a 2001 Agreement among New England governors and Eastern Canadian premiers to reduce greenhouse gases. These goals call for specific reductions to be made to 1990 levels by 2010, and to 10 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.
National currently employs approximately 500 people at its facility in South Portland, Maine. The company designs and manufactures analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits that maximize energy efficiency and enable vivid displays, high-fidelity sound and reliable signal integrity in products such as wireless handsets and portable devices as well as communications infrastructure, security, surveillance and medical equipment.
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