We Are Sustainability Driven

Manufacturing our drives uses energy and produces GHGs. To combat these realities, Seagate works to reduce the amount of energy and carbon required to produce disk drives by identifying energy efficiency opportunities, auditing management systems and performance, and reporting on progress throughout the manufacturing process.

Water is a key natural resource and warrants proper management to preserve and protect the health of our ecosystem as a whole. Our manufacturing processes withdraw water from local watersheds for use as coolants and cleaning agents at factories. While the amount of water used in product manufacturing has increased somewhat over the past several years (owing to increased production), we have implemented measures to improve water recycling and have achieved significant gains in the same period.

We have established programs to properly track, manage, and report all waste types across our global footprint. We use these programs to categorise different waste streams and properly dispose of waste in accordance with regulatory requirements. Our waste reduction initiatives strive to reduce environmental impact by first preventing waste from being produced, and then moving to recycling or reusing waste where possible. 

Each Seagate site reports a central waste database, accessible by facilities management employees and reviewed by Seagate’s corporate sustainability team. This data helps us to ensure that we’re adhering to best practices. Hazardous waste treatment vendors are qualified through a third-party audit of set criteria and have established minimum requirements for their selection and performance.

There is increased attention on the circular economy as most industrialized countries recognise that linear “take-make-waste” economies are unsustainable for both their businesses and global wellbeing.

This is driven in part by growing recognition of dwindling finite resources and increasing concerns regarding materials availability and access. Seagate is committed to innovating in materials efficiency and circularity, both internally and with our external stakeholders and peers. 

We receive warranty-returned drives, buy back products from customers, and refurbish and resell useful drives. In FY2023, these practices allowed us to extend the life of 1.19 million HDDs and SSDs. These drives were recovered and placed back into the market, avoiding over 553 metric tonnes of e-waste.*

Drives are recycled at locations that have been audited by a third party to ensure our environmental standards are met. We also provide customers with drive disassembly instructions to facilitate recycling.

*Assuming each drive is an average weight of 465g.

In 2017, we also committed to our Science-Based Targets: 

• Reducing absolute Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions 20% by 2025 and 60% by 2040. 
• Reducing absolute Scope 3 GHG emissions 20% by 2025 and 60% by 2040.

In 2022, Seagate announced two environmental moonshot goals: 

• Reaching 100% renewable energy in our manufacturing and R&D sites by 2030.
• Reaching carbon neutrality by 2040.