Promoting green manufacturing and operations through innovation
OPPO has held onto its global position as the fourth-largest phone manufacturer for two consecutive years，with users in over 60 countries and regions worldwide. As its business grows rapidly, OPPO is equally concerned about how to reduce its environmental impact.
Among the carbon emissions generated by OPPO’s various operations, factories and data centers are the two most significant sources of greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for 62% and 31.9% respectively. While continuing to drive commercial growth, OPPO is also exploring innovative ways to achieve greener manufacturing and business operations. Through energy saving and emission reduction initiatives, by the end of 2022, OPPO has managed to reduce 6000 tons of greenhouse gas emission from its operation each year. This is equivalent to the amount of greenhouse gas absorbed by 3,330 square kilometers of forest in a year.
Since 2020, OPPO has systematically carried out a series of energy-saving upgrades to key machinery in its factories. One such project has involved automating previously manually operated machines. Compared with manual control, the automated equipment can be set to operate precisely according to the real-time requirement, thus reducing power consumption to the bare minimum. For example, with the automation upgrades introduced to the corner cutting machines, power consumption has fallen by 54%.
In addition, OPPO is also working on the construction of carbon neutral data centers. Its first self-built data center, OPPO Binhai Bay Data Centre not only uses 100% renewable energy, but also continues to explore and apply cutting-edge, low-carbon technology. One of the key outcomes of this exploration has been the research and implementation of immersion cooling technology for GPU server clusters.
We are living in a digital era, with ever-increasing demand for data storage, artificial intelligence, and high-performance computing. Thus, the power consumption of data centers and their GPU server clusters is also rising significantly. Not only does this increased power consumption present a major challenge, but we must also work out how to dissipate the heat produced as efficiently as possible. Most traditional data centers rely on mechanical equipment such as fans and air conditioners to cool the building, which in turn consumes more energy and produces higher levels of CO2.
In order to improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions, OPPO is deploying immersion cooling technology for GPU server clusters in its data center. Immersion cooling technology, which refers to the direct immersion of servers in a non-conductive liquid, directly draws the heat generated during operation away through the liquid, without the need for active cooling by devices such as fans and air conditioners. The liquid that has risen in temperature is cooled by circulation and then returned to continue absorbing thermal energy. The heat recovered is then put to good use in other areas such as heating and hot water provision, significantly improving the energy efficiency of the overall system. The deployment of immersion cooling technology leads to a 45% improvement in energy efficiency, and an industry-leading data center power usage efficiency (PUE) as low as 1.15.
The volume of electronic waste generated globally has grown by 21% over the past 5 years, making it the fastest growing category of household waste[2]. To tackle the problem of e-waste pollution, OPPO has established a number of product recycling systems and launched a trade-in service in both domestic and international markets to promote the recycling of used electronic devices. In 2021, 1.2 million phones were recycled in China, amounting to a total weight of 216 tons. This number rose to 1.3 million phones and 240 tons in 2022. In the EU and other regions, OPPO is involved in the Green Dot program as well as partnering with professional recycling firms to help recycle used products.
