The high tech industry experiences a unique dilemma regarding its scope 3 emissions, which are substantially greater than its other emission categories, according to research from Accenture.

Scope 3 emissions for high tech companies are 24 times greater than their scope 1 and 13 times greater than scope 2 emissions, Accenture's report notes. But only 32% of global high tech companies include scope 3 emissions as part of broader net-zero targets.

The high tech industry is composed of five segments:

• The semiconductor ecosystem, including semiconductor equipment manufacturers such as Applied Materials, integrated device manufacturers like Intel, foundries like Samsung and fab-less companies like Nvidia, Qualcomm and AMD
• Enterprise tech vendors like Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and Dell Technologies
• Consumer tech companies such as Apple
• Network equipment vendors like Nokia, Cisco and Ericsson
• Medical equipment vendors like GE Healthcare

Across all five areas of high tech, there's "a lot of electricity usage and also a lot of water usage," Syed Alam, Accenture global high tech lead, told SDxCentral. But the semiconductor ecosystem has more of an upstream scope 3 environmental footprint to grapple with than the rest of high tech.

In terms of managing scope 3 value chain emissions, "enterprise tech and consumer tech companies have a very big challenge in terms of the size of scope 3 emissions, but I think semiconductor companies have a bigger challenge," he said.

Semiconductor companies "use a lot of electricity in the manufacturing," but enterprise and consumer tech companies use "a lot of contract manufacturers across the whole value chain," Alam pointed out.

For example, when a mobile device company builds a product, it may source components from a contract manufacturer that sources its components from a third company. "From that angle, it's very challenging for them to keep track" of those value chain carbon emissions, Alam explained.

Despite the challenges of reaching net-zero emissions, Alam believes high tech companies are "realistic about their ambition," and "it's not greenwashing," he said, citing many high tech companies' public environmental goals and reporting.

Accenture's report did note, however, that high tech needs to turn those ambitions into "stronger action" to address climate change, and in turn the industry will benefit from an improved brand image and ESG credibility among investors.

According to the report, near-term actions for high tech companies to address value chain emissions include:

• Conduct supply chain emissions hot spot mapping
• Integrate scope 3 emissions into broader sustainability commitments
• Take advantage of supply chain rebalancing as "an opportunity to recalibrate" by onshoring product manufacturing and considering sustainability in all new sites
• Explore end-of-life refurbishment or recycling for physical equipment
• Improve products' sustainability and incorporate sustainable design and packaging principles

"To meet their goals, high tech companies need to act," the report concluded. These companies leave significant environmental impacts and "should fast-track their path to a data-powered digital core, which means pulling data, AI, and technology into every part of the business."