Sustainability at NY Creates
At NY Creates, we are positioning ourselves to be a test bed for the development and validation of sustainable materials and processes to drive increased efficiency and competitiveness for the semiconductor industry. We are embedding sustainability into our site operations to remove constraints and reduce the cost to support the future growth of our site. Additionally, we are collaborating with industry partners to drive business value for sustainability efforts.
Test Bed Capability Development
Creates is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit private corporation serving as the U.S. epicenter for semiconductor research and development (R&D), education and workforce development, and high-tech economic advancement. Creates owns and operates the largest and most advanced non-profit-led semiconductor research and development center in North America, the 1.65 million square foot Albany NanoTech Complex. Creates is staffed with experts focused on accelerating innovation to commercialization in critical areas including semiconductors, quantum technologies, advanced memory, integrated photonics, devices for neuromorphic computing and AI, advanced packaging and heterogeneous integration (HI), and more. This positions us very well to lead lab-to-fab work to develop relevant test beds in the key sustainability focus areas for the semiconductor industry, where we can work with our partners, suppliers, and universities to evaluate alternative and more sustainable materials, processes, and new equipment technologies. We can then generate relevant technical data for the further scale up and acceleration of sustainable technology transfer into high-volume manufacturing.
The key sustainability focus areas include:
- New material evaluations:
- Alternative gases for etch processes
- PFAS-free photoresist
- New point-of-use (POU)-technology evaluations:
- UPW-POU recovery
- Chemistry-POU recovery
- PFAS sensing:
- New sensing technologies for PFAS detection in aqueous and gas phases
- Abatement technologies:
- Reduce water usage
- Reduce waste streams
- More effective destruction of PFAS
- High NA EUV sustainability:
- Hydrogen recovery system
- Sustainability baselining
Collaboration with Industry Partners
Collaboration with industry partners is critical for our success and the success of our sustainability program. Identifying collaborative areas with partners and building an executable plan to deliver sustainability solutions to the industry is a key focus of this pillar.
In 2025, Creates became a member of SEMI SCC where organizations can collaborate on sustainability strategies, tools, and innovation for the semiconductor value chain.
Embedding Sustainability into Site Operations
Creates’ Albany NanoTech Complex has grown significantly, and this requires extensive facilities support infrastructure to provide a wide range of utilities with defined quality parameters to our site partners. Our goal is to establish robust goals to most effectively address greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, water stewardship, energy efficiency, and waste generation.
Embedding sustainability in our operations and optimizing our processes is necessary for the sustainable growth of our site and as an industry model.
Ready to learn more?
If you are interested in collaborating with us to drive sustainability in the semiconductor industry, please reach out to: