A drop at a time
Intel has published its projects at https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/environment/intel-and-the-environment.html
This is how Intel is coming up with its return numbers
Firsthand reductions
- Adjusting manufacturing processes so it uses less water per unit of output (wafer/$/transistor/?)
- Treat and reuse some of the water that flows through the foundries
- Using water produced by a desalinization plant in Israel
But these only go so far, so they are including third party reductions as water "returned" to the community. This includes:
- finding some local inefficiency in water consumption (such as flood irrigation where drip irrigation will do) and paying somebody to fix the issue
- paying people with local water rights not to use those rights
- buying land or conservation easements or restoring wetlands that at least theoretically result in recharged aquifers or higher river flow