Work description: I researched and wrote this piece to deliver as a ghostwritten CSR summary for a client in June 2015. The draft went through additional revisions after this version, including changes to the working title.

AMD Zeroes in on Product efficiency, Emerging Markets and Supply Chain

Sunnyvale-based Fortune 500 company Advanced Micro Designs (AMD) develops computer processor products with a workforce of 10,000 people is scattered across 50 worldwide locations. AMD recently released its Corporate Responsibility (CR) Report from 2013-2014, which adheres to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards. AMD identifies its three primary material issues as follows: Product Energy and Efficiency Solutions, Increasing Access to Technology and Supply Chain Responsibility.  

Product Energy and Efficiency Solutions

Product Energy and Efficiency Solutions are material to AMD given that consumers wish to improve their energy efficiency through their own purchasing choices. In 2013, AMD pursued such solutions by acquiring a company that specializes in energy efficient, high-bandwidth microservers: SeaMicro. For AMD, this acquisition will strategically position the company to adapt to relevant technological trends including emerging markets, low-power products, client mobility and cloud data centers.

Increasing Access to Technology

Emerging markets are also the key component to AMD’s approach to increasing access to technology. As AMD continues to expand its operations throughout Latin America, it has brought educational awareness along with it. AMD sought to expand its educational program AMD Changing the Game to the emerging markets it joined. This program provides education to children in middle school to teach them the basic of computer technology. This educational pursuit corresponds to AMD’s additional goal of providing long term Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education. Access to technology is also supported through AMD’s efforts to educate consumers of the many ways its products may be used such as documentation of its own internal cloud infrastructure as a model of green computing.

Supply Chain Responsibility

Finally, like many businesses in IT that use sustainability reporting methods, AMD understands that its supply chain is the source of many of the most significant challenges a business will face. That’s why AMD identified supply chain responsibility as its third primary material issue. Most significantly, AMD hopes to eliminate conflict materials from its supply chain links. Labor, health and safety, ethics and environmental risks are each slated to be observed throughout the supply chain using its Suppler Business Reviews. Suppliers provide these reviews to AMD regarding their sustainability performance using a pre-established supplier review format.

While the above-mentioned material issues are the primary targets for AMD, it also notes that environmental goals are significant to its business operations. This includes its efforts to reduce GHG emissions, to conserve water and energy, and to minimize waste. These goals have clear targets extending to the year 2017 outlined in AMD’s CR report. Notably, few changes were made between its reporting of major material performance indicators between its 2012-2013 report and the most recent report. A greater attention to specific yearly progress could help ensure that sustained emphasis on these material concerns lies at the core of AMD’s business strategy.