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Revolutionising Sustainability: An Interview with Manish Kothari on Silicon Lab’s Commitment to Extend Sustainable IoT Solutions in India

CXOToday has engaged in an exclusive interview with Manish Kothari, SVP at Silicon Labs

  1. What is your view on the growing importance of ‘sustainability’ in IoT solutions in 2023?

The Internet of Things is transforming industries, growing economies, improving lives, and safeguarding our environment. As an IoT leader, Silicon Labs is proud of the positive impact our products are having on the world, helping to manage precious resources like water, improving energy efficiency in homes, cities and buildings, and enabling innovative connected health solutions. We see an incredible opportunity for IoT technology to deliver on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and recognize that sustainability starts with our own operations and design to develop energy-efficient solutions that power the IoT.

Our products enable sustainable IoT solutions across home, medical, industrial and commercial environments, including air pollution and waste management monitoring, water integrity, and residential irrigation. In addition to reducing their environmental impact, companies in the IoT industry are also focusing on ethical and social considerations. To address privacy and data security concerns, companies are implementing stricter data protection policies that point towards a secure and sustained society. Furthermore, companies are now exploring innovative business models to reduce the environmental impact of consumption and promote circular economy principles that reduce product waste by extending the lifespan of products.

Overall, the growing importance of sustainability in the IoT industry is a positive development, driving innovation and encouraging responsible business practices. These initiatives will build a secure and sustainable future for all.

 

2. What would be Silicon Labs’ sustainability goals for this decade?

Silicon Labs’ sustainability goals are focused in five strategic areas: employee wellbeing, product and services innovation, eco-efficient operations, climate change mitigation, and responsible supply chain.

We’re committed to reducing our carbon footprint while transitioning to renewable energy and improving our landfill diversion rate. We are on track to reduce our Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions by 50% at our Austin headquarters by 2025 and transition to 100% renewable energy in our facilities where available. We are also carefully examining the downstream impacts of our products and continue to make improvements in energy efficiency in our own solutions.

Our commitment to sustainable and responsible operations extends throughout our supply chain. In 2022, we joined the Responsible Business Alliance, increasing transparency and collaboration with our suppliers. Together, we’re working to improve efficiency and social, ethical, and environmental responsibility throughout our global operations.

We continue to invest in our people and initiatives that foster innovation and inclusion. We’re actively building pathways for underrepresented talent and are committed to driving long-term change as we promote diversity in our recruitment, development, and promotion practices, guided by insights from our annual Inclusion Assessment.

We are excited to continue our progress on sustainability, including initiatives to advance our environmental and cybersecurity efforts and promote a healthy, inclusive, and engaged culture at work.

 

3. Silicon Labs’ has a multifaceted ESG approach and sustainability strategy. Please elaborate on this strategy. 

We are committed to advancing our environmental, social, and governance efforts and becoming a sustainable leader in the semiconductor industry. We’re committed to cleantech product design, environmentally and socially responsible operations throughout our supply chain, and providing the highest level of product security. Guided by our shared values, we strive to “do the right thing” for our employees, customers, partners, and communities.

Our sustainability strategy focuses on areas where we believe we can make the biggest impact: creating innovative products with positive environmental and social impact, fostering and empowering a diverse, innovative culture; conducting our business in an environmentally and socially responsible way; and sharing value creation with our stakeholders and communities, now and in the future.

Sustainability efforts are led by our ESG Steering Committee who actively solicits feedback from internal and external stakeholders including customers, vendors, and nonprofit organizations to refine our strategy.

 

4. Kindly talk about the initiative of Smart City Living Lab in partnership with IIIT-H and the technologies employed. How does it contribute to Silicon Labs’ commitment to sustainability?

As a part of our commitment to devising energy-efficient solutions and cutting-edge technologies adaptive to dense environments, Silicon Labs is a proud founding corporate partner of Smart City Living Lab that has been set up in partnership with the International Institute of Information Technology – Hyderabad (IIIT- H). The Smart City Living Lab plays a part in the Government of India’s Smart Cities Mission to drive economic growth and improve quality of life by enabling local development and harnessing technology in India.

The research centre is harnessing and experimenting IoT technologies, and smart city applications. The deployment aims to test and create an urban area with enhanced safety, energy efficiency, sanitation, and quality of life in densifying cities.

On May 05, 2023 the Phase 2 of the campus-wide Wi-SUN FAN 1.1 network was launched at IIIT-H Living Lab.  This is an innovative street-lighting application using Silicon Labs’ EFR32FG25 nodes which will provide connectivity to both battery-powered and line-powered devices. With the present deployment, more than 100 streetlights on campus are being controlled and a dense and steady Wi-SUN network is built covering more than 80% of the campus.

The extension to the Wi-SUN network at IIITH provides the ideal infrastructure to build and validate a multitude of Smart City solutions including water management, air quality monitoring, smart lighting, traffic management, energy management, waste management and many others.

 

5. What would be the scope of sustainable solutions for industries and clients in India?

In partnership with IIIT-H it is our pleasure to be able to contribute to research and development of an array of smart city solutions. We see huge potential for IoT in India and thus believe in contributing to development of next-generation technologies in India for the world, to improve safety, energy efficiency, sustainability and driving smarter, more connected cities.

The smart metering market in India is rapidly growing with a focus on smart energy optimisation and reducing energy loss. Silicon Labs’ FG25 System-on-Chip (SoC), recently made generally available in India, will certainly help address the growing need for intelligent, connected devices in cities and other municipal environments. To support smart metering in India, CyanConnode a global leader in RF mesh technology has leveraged FG-25 SoC to assist the government of India in accomplishing the Smart cities mission.

For almost 15 years, Silicon Labs has invested its R&D time, talent, and resources into building a platform to support the broadest wireless technologies and the creation of secure and sustainable ecosystems. With India, we further plan to extend our commitment to developing cutting-edge wireless technology and enable our clients to create a better, more sustainable future.

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