Cirrus Logic

Texan by Nature is excited to recognize Cirrus Logic as a 2024 TxN 20 honoree for their leadership in conservation and sustainability. Cirrus Logic’s commitment to conservation, their projects, programs, best practices, and lessons learned are an example and inspiration for us all.

Honoree Name: Cirrus Logic

Honoree Industry and Size: Technology, Mid-size

Company Overview: Cirrus Logic is a leader in low-power, high-precision mixed-signal processing solutions that create innovative user experiences for the world’s top mobile and consumer applications. As a fabless semiconductor company, we outsource the manufacturing of our products, which allows us to focus resources on research and development. Cirrus Logic is based in Austin, Texas, and has offices in other parts of the U.S., U.K., and Asia.

What is Cirrus Logic’s conservation and sustainability mission and why is it important to your culture?
As a responsible business, Cirrus Logic strives to create positive impacts on people and the planet through a variety of conservation and sustainability initiatives both within the company and in the communities where we operate. We believe that providing avenues for employees to create positive impacts will inspire them at work and lead to a more engaged workforce – both of which are important to our corporate culture.

What steps is Cirrus Logic taking to address global natural resource challenges, and how are these efforts integrated into your overall business strategy?
Cirrus Logic recognizes our responsibility to embed conservation and sustainability policies and practices across the business. We believe that actions relating to conservation and sustainability complement our business strategy and will contribute to the company’s success.

Cirrus Logic is taking steps to reduce the carbon footprint associated with our facilities and business operations through energy efficiency, renewable energy procurement, and waste diversion. In FY22, Cirrus Logic set a target to reduce our Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 90 percent, compared to our FY21 baseline. To date, Cirrus Logic has achieved a substantial reduction, making good progress towards our target. We have also progressively increased the use of renewable electricity in our facilities over the past few years and will continue to do so when options are available.

We are also engaged with our global suppliers to better understand their existing sustainability practices and identify areas for collaboration and continuous improvement. In FY24, we introduced a new program to conduct additional due diligence and further assess potential sustainability risks in our supply chain.

In FY24, Cirrus Logic was awarded ISO 14001 certification which sets the requirements for an internationally recognized environmental management system. Our Environmental Policy, adopted as part of the certification process, will guide our commitment to develop environmentally friendly chip designs, protect the health and sustainability of our environment, and continually improve our program.

Who in Cirrus Logic is leading your conservation and sustainability efforts and what are some examples of employee engagement in conservation and sustainability at Cirrus Logic?
Cirrus Logic’s Board of Directors has responsibility for oversight of conservation and sustainability efforts, with delegation to three committees — Audit, Compensation and Human Resources, and Governance and Nominating — within their respective areas of expertise. Our efforts are operationalized by a cross-functional team that includes members from human resources, investor relations, legal, and quality. This team reports progress to the Board of Directors at least twice a year.

Guidance for Cirrus Logic’s conservation and sustainability program is provided by an executive steering committee comprised of the CEO and members of the leadership team representing finance, global operations, human resources, and legal. The committee reviews the program’s direction, addresses potential barriers, and helps to identify relevant risks and opportunities throughout the year.

In addition, the employee-led Cirrus Logic Environmental Action Network (CLEAN) was established to provide a platform for employees to make a difference across a range of conversation and sustainability initiatives where we live and work globally. In FY24, CLEAN identified four critical strategic objectives to focus its current and future initiatives: increasing biodiversity, safeguarding waterways, promoting environmental education, and supporting sustainable living practices.

We also provide opportunities for our employees to partake in sustainable living. In Austin, Cirrus Logic provides three commuter shuttle lines that pick up and drop off our employees from our offices. We reimburse employees who take Capital Metro services to work. In addition, we provide bike storage and shower facilities in our global offices to support employees who choose to cycle to work. Cirrus Logic also offers free electric vehicle charging stations for employee use in numerous locations in the U.S. and U.K.; 11 percent of employees in these offices have registered for free charging.

Cirrus Logic Environmental Action Network (CLEAN) is an employee resource group that advances environmental stewardship.

What conservation and sustainability programs and projects does Cirrus Logic lead and participate in?
In FY24, Cirrus Logic and its employees contributed a total of $1.594 million in philanthropic and charitable cash donations, benefiting approximately 375 non-profit organizations worldwide within our focus areas: (1) community well-being; (2) culture and the art; (3) humanitarian efforts; (4) science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) and workforce diversity; (5) and sustainability and the environment.

We worked with organizations such as Shoal Creek Conservancy and Keep Austin Beautiful to conduct regular cleanups of waterways in Austin and supported The Nature Conservancy’s Plant a Billion Trees program. In FY24, Cirrus Logic employees cleared more than 1,000 pounds of trash during our cleanup efforts.

As part of our commitment to reducing waste, we recycled approximately 4,000 pounds of e-waste consisting of end-of-life IT products and depleted batteries through Responsible Recycling certified vendors. In addition, more than 2,000 pounds of e-waste from employees’ unwanted personal and household consumer electronics were recycled during CLEAN’s annual e-waste drive across our global offices.

We also donated more than 500 computers, that had been cleared of confidential data, to nonprofit organizations such as Code2College and Latinitas in the U.S. and The Edinburgh Remakery in the U.K.

“At Cirrus Logic we are committed to excellence in everything we do, whether that is developing class-leading products, building a culture that enables our employees to do their best work and make a lasting impression on their industry, or positively impacting the communities in which we live and work. I am proud of the progress the company made this year in our environmental, social, and governance focus areas and I am pleased to see our hard work receive recognition.”

– John Forsyth, President and CEO, Cirrus Logic

What strategies does Cirrus Logic use to educate and raise awareness among employees, customers, and stakeholders about the importance of conservation and sustainability?
In Cirrus Logic, relevant topics relating to conservation and sustainability, such as those pertaining to our Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) program, are included as part of our new employee onboarding process. New employees are issued reusable products (e.g., mugs) to encourage them to reduce or eliminate the use of disposables. In addition, CLEAN regularly invites external speakers to educate our employees about a variety of conservation and sustainability topics, such as the importance of bats in Austin and globally, as well as the threat of plastic pollution.

The ESG team also regularly engages external stakeholders such as customers, suppliers, and investors, and participates in the annual Responsible Business Alliance Conference to continually improve our ESG program. Such efforts include understanding new industry standards, our customers’ sustainability expectations, and emerging regulatory requirements so that we can cascade these demands through our company and down to our suppliers.

Can you share specific examples of successful partnerships or innovative collaborations Cirrus Logic has formed with other organizations to enhance sustainability and conservation outcomes?
Cirrus Logic has meaningful engagements with various organizations globally in support of our sustainability and conservation objectives. These relationships are mutually beneficial and help amplify the positive outcomes for both partners. Some examples are listed below.

In the U.S., Cirrus Logic has worked with Code2College for multiple years. Cirrus Logic regularly donates computers cleared of confidential data to Code2College, and our employees also volunteer with them in support of their educational programs. In Austin, Cirrus Logic has collaborated with Shoal Creek Conservancy and Keep Austin Beautiful as part of CLEAN’s waterway cleanup program.

Cirrus Logic Environmental Action Network (CLEAN) organizes regular cleanup of waterways in Austin, such as along Shoal Creek, for both employees and interns.

Cirrus Logic Environmental Action Network (CLEAN) organizes regular cleanup of waterways in Austin, such as along Shoal Creek, for both employees and interns.

How does Cirrus Logic quantify investment and return on conservation and sustainability?
Within Cirrus Logic, we believe that investment in conservation and sustainability initiatives will generate long-term value for the company and our stakeholders by increasing operational efficiency while reducing costs. For example, by focusing on energy efficiency through LED lighting, smart controls, and energy-efficient heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems, we can reduce our facilities’ energy footprint, carbon emissions, and operational costs.

How do you see the future of conservation and sustainability evolving, and what role will Cirrus Logic play in that progress?
Texas is likely to experience more frequent extreme weather events like droughts, heat waves, and thunderstorms in the future. To adapt, conservation and sustainability efforts in Texas should prioritize building resilience. This means enhancing watersheds to ensure a reliable water supply and expanding urban greenery to reduce the urban heat island effect. Cirrus Logic hopes to support non-profit organizations focused on these important issues in the future.

What is the one lesson that Cirrus Logic has learned from its conservation and sustainability efforts that others can take back and think about applying within their own space?
There are different degrees of conservation and sustainability efforts, and as a business, Cirrus Logic needs to prioritize where we spend our limited resources. Hence, we are very cognizant of the core conservation and sustainability capabilities that we should develop in-house, particularly those related to meeting our customers’ expectations and improving the sustainability of our supply chain. For other non-core efforts, we seek out and work with reliable non-profit organizations to amplify our contributions.

Cirrus Logic Environmental Action Network (CLEAN) participating in Keep Austin Beautiful Day 2024.

Why is Texas an important home or base of operations for Cirrus Logic?
Since 1998, Cirrus Logic has based its global business in Austin, Texas. A majority of our global workforce is based here and considers Texas home. As a technology hub, Austin also provides us with the ecosystem and skilled talent that enables Cirrus Logic to prosper over the long term. Texas is thus an important home base for our company and we are committed to maintaining our community engagement locally.

Find out more about Cirrus Logic’s conservation and sustainability efforts here.