Are semiconductor companies a growing environmental problem or a green solution?

A view that is gaining wider currency among environmentalists is that the semiconductor industry is damaging the planet. It is a justified concern. Chips are manufactured in huge, resource-hungry fabs, factories that can span up to 1 million square feet in size. And each year, the industry uses well over 100 billion litres of water1 and generates nearly 100 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions2; it is also a voracious consumer of rare earth materials and produces a lot of toxic waste.