2023 ESG Impact ReportSilfab's journey toward sustainability
A MESSAGE FROM:
The President & CEO, and the Chair of Silfab Solar Inc.
We are pleased to be presenting to the world Silfab’s journey toward sustainability. Throughout our Impact Report, you will see the areas of focus for Silfab on our ESG journey, data validating our targets and focus areas, and aspirational statements regarding future ambitions on sustainability for our company as well as the solar industry overall.
OVERVIEW
We are driven to create more clean energy with every solar panel we make. This positive energy creates a sustainable contribution to our world and climate. We are committed to upholding our core values in our business processes: providing a safe and equitable workplace for our employees, treating our partners and communities with respect, and adhering to the highest ethical operating and business standards.
SOLAR LEADS THE WORLDWIDE ENERGY TRANSFORMATION
As early as 2027, cumulative solar generating capacity could surpass that of hydropower, natural gas, and coal—an incredible advancement.
OUR SUSTAINABILITY COMMITMENT
Sustainability has been embedded in our corporate purpose and values since the company’s inception. Our North American-based facilities are focused on strong environmental and social responsibility as well as performance, backed by rigorous accountability and governance systems.
We are committed to reducing our Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions 50% by 2030 and being net zero by 2040.
SPOTLIGHT ON 2023 PRIORITIES
HEALTH & SAFETY AND IMS
In 2023, our focus was on solidifying our ISO 9001:2015 foundation with future plans to build a road map to a more advanced integrated management system (IMS). An IMS will be a more comprehensive approach to streamlining environmental, governance, and social responsibility procedures, as well as implementing controls to ensure that we meet our objectives. Integrating ISO 45001, an occupational health and safety management system, will provide an internationally recognized framework for managing health and safety risks, assessing hazards, and implementing risk control measures that can lead to reduced workplace injuries, illnesses, and incidents.
CLEAN SUPPLY CHAIN
Regardless of where our raw materials come from, Silfab Solar believes we cannot realize the clean energy revolution by ignoring our social and environmental responsibilities. As a result, we are actively working with many different industry stakeholders to ensure the solar sector adheres to the highest ethical standards of labor and community practices. The company is actively investing in deepening the vertical integration of solar manufacturing by being one of the few companies building out solar cell manufacturing capacity in the United States.
NET ZERO COMMITMENT
Silfab Solar’s long history of manufacturing solar panels has resulted in significant emissions reductions. Implementing procedures and policies that focus on emissions directly or indirectly associated with the company’s operations and supply chain puts Silfab Solar on track in achieving its goal of reducing Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions by 50% by 2030 and being net zero by 2040.
RESHORING SOLAR TO USA
Our company is directly engaged in the US policy landscape regarding reshoring solar manufacturing and creating an equitable competitive landscape for solar products. With expansion into South Carolina, Silfab Solar is well-positioned to meet North America’s expanding demand for domestically made high-quality solar products and support the country’s goal to increase the percentage of American-made components in solar modules.
Manufacturing in North America enables access to cleaner electricity grids, which allows our solar panels to have a lower embodied carbon footprint than those made in other regions. Bringing supply chains closer to home creates jobs and lifts up local economies; important priorities, as we see value in being good neighbors in the communities where our employees live.
Solar cell & PV module manufacturing in USA
Silfab Solar’s solar cell and PV manufacturing facility in South Carolina, USA, will represent the next step in the company’s active investment in deeper vertical integration of solar manufacturing, which result in competitive, financial, social, and environmental benefits.
Silfab solar: defining Leadership in ESG
As North America’s leading solar manufacturer, Silfab is committed to advancing best practices for sustainability and driving the industry forward with excellent products made in a responsible manner.
Silfab aligns its sustainability leadership priorities with the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that guide the world to a better future.
Silfab Solar: Creating a Clean Economy
Investing in renewable energy sources contributes to growing a clean economy with benefits to customers, communities, and investors. In the electricity sector, solar can create the most jobs per watt of any energy source.
A SILFAB SOLAR PANEL made with a low-carbon footprint is a sustainable one
Manufacturing in North America enables access to cleaner electricity grids, which allows our solar panels to have a lower embodied carbon footprint than those made in other regions.
With Rooftop installations, Silfab Solar will HELP THE WORLD get to net zero faster
Rooftop solar installations offer an optimal combination of factors that, when put together, supercharge the benefits of solar energy.
01 PROXIMITY
02 FOOTPRINT
03 INSTALLATION
Silfab panels are designed and engineered to lasT
A priority for Silfab has been to produce durable, long-lasting solar panels, which, in our view, needs to be a pillar of sustainability for the solar industry.
A long-lasting panel means that its original manufacturing environmental impact shrinks as a result of being amortized over a longer period of clean energy production. Plus, it is less likely to end up in a landfill with all those precious elements that went into making it going to waste. Given the advancements, we are now pushing on panel recycling. Our panels will continue to produce free, clean energy well past the year that the customer has paid for their original investment.
A sustainable solar panel is one that performs well under a wide variety of conditions and can be validated as high-performing by accredited expert third parties. Silfab solar panels have received awards from two industry leaders, PVEL and RETC. showing customers they are getting a great product with enhanced sustainability.
GOVERNANCE
Sustainability is about action, not just words. A focus on good governance helps ensure those actions are achieved.
Good Governance and Business Ethics
We have built our business operations on fostering a culture based on professionalism, adaptability commitment, excellence, and reliability with our employees, suppliers, and customers.
Silfab Solar is proud to operate a business built on strong ethics and accountability, driven by robust governance processes. These practices ensure our solar panels are as sustainable as possible and that our employees, customers, suppliers, and communities are treated with respect.
Good Governance and Best Practices
Code of Ethics
Company Performance
Cyber Security
ISO 9001:2015
CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
CLEAN SUPPLY CHAIN
INVESTORS AND ESG Commitments
Silfab Solar is supported by a number of different institutional investors, all of whom have strong ESG commitments for their own operations and investments.
For each of them, having a North American solar energy manufacturer in their portfolio helps to demonstrate how they are investing in the clean energy transition.
ARC Financial Corp. has been a significant backer of Silfab Solar since 2021. Investing in the solar sector is part of the private equity firm’s clean energy transition-focused funds. ARC expects all of the companies it invests in to produce ESG information and data for its review and benchmarking. In addition, ARC prepares its own ESG Sustainability Report for public release.
Social
Putting people first is a priority for Silfab, with a focus on employees, the communities in which we operate and serve with our products, and the supply chains that support our success.
community benefits
LOCAL NORTH AMERICAN MANUFACTURER
Clean Energy Jobs / D&I
Health & Safety
domestic and international initiatives
Silfab Solar currently works with a select group of international and domestic charities and not-for-profit organizations to provide sustainable energy resources to enhance the well-being of international and local communities.
CHARITABLE ORGANIZATIONS
EDUCATIONAL SUPPORT
World Vision
Give Power
Environmental
For Silfab, a solar panel’s environmental performance is focused on high-efficiency clean energy generation, the lowest embodied carbon footprint from its manufacturing, lasting for decades backed by a long warranty, and can be recycled once it is no longer producing energy.
our primary environmental objective is to produce a solar panel with the lowest carbon footprint
With solar’s emergence as the dominant low-cost renewable energy option across the world, Silfab believes it’s important to continuously improve solar’s own environmental footprint. We are striving to help the industry redefine what sustainable solar energy needs to be now and into the future.
Silfab’s manufacturing facilities are located close to where the demand is. Locally made solar has a lower carbon footprint due to North America’s cleaner electricity grid and strong environmental regulations.
Significant scientific research is going into determining low-carbon supply chains for solar, and we are using that peer research to help navigate our manufacturing processes and establish reliable benchmarks. Silfab, guided by newly established low-carbon solar standards such as EPEAT and GES, is focused on pairing a low-carbon pathway with our business strategy for manufacturing in North American jurisdictions with clean electricity grids.
R&D – SUSTAINABILITY
Silfab’s R&D efforts are focused on not only creating a high-performance, long-lasting solar panel but also one that has sustainability considerations built into it by efforts to make our panels out of the most environmentally friendly materials as possible. Silfab focuses its manufacturing on crystalline silicon solar panels, vs. thin film solar, which is used primarily in utility-scale projects. Polysilicon technology allows us to avoid the use of cadmium or tellurium, contain no fluorinated polymers and only trace amounts of lead.
silfab solar ENVIRONMENTAL FOOTPRINT
SOLAR PANEL MANUFACTURING
CARBON & ENERGY
In order to support rising demand and maximize the benefits of solar, it is critical that the industry focus on its own carbon footprint. Silfab Solar’s most impactful decision to lower our embodied carbon footprint has been to locate our facilities in North American jurisdictions with clean energy grids. As the United States becomes more focused on clean energy, manufacturing and transportation-related emissions are on the decline. Silfab Solar’s upcoming US solar cell production facility will further reduce the carbon footprint of Silfab Solar panels.
WASTE & RECYCLING
Solar panel manufacturing creates waste associated with both the packaging we receive our materials in as well as the manufacturing process. We work with our suppliers to reduce packaging waste. Our manufacturing waste is minimized wherever possible. We prioritize recycling of items such as cardboard, wood pallets, metal, broken cells, and aluminum directly from our facilities and have secured contracts with two industry-accredited solar panel recyclers.
WATER
Solar panel manufacturing does not require direct water consumption. Any water consumed by Silfab Solar is for conventional domestic water needs amongst employees at our offices and facilities. As Silfab Solar began the process in 2022 of planning for additional vertical integration of solar manufacturing processes with a focus on cell production, the company developed a broader view of water sustainability at future sites. Solar cell production requires water inputs into manufacturing; however, when managed responsibly, that water resource can be treated properly on site and returned to municipal systems without any quality concerns.
FUTURE SUSTAINABILITY OBJECTIVES
The objectives will cover the following areas:
Corporate Green Teams
IMS (Integrated Management System)
Waste Reduction Targets
On-Site Energy Efficiency
Environmental Impact Reduction
New Safety Measures
Expanded Community Involvement