“Every drop counts”: Coralie Zen, environmental engineer and water management expert.
Water is a vital resource for the semiconductor industry. It is also at the heart of Coralie's work. An Environmental Engineer at Soitec for the past two years, she coordinates initiatives to reduce water withdrawals across the Bernin and Singapore sites. She also oversees environmental, safety and energy certifications and co-manages, alongside Laurent Céard, Sphera, the platform that centralises the Group's ESG data.
As the expert responsible for the ESRS E3* (Water and Marine Resources), she also coordinates the collection and consolidation of water-related data that feeds into the Group's sustainability reporting.
Turning ambitions into actions
Much of Coralie's work involves bringing together different teams around a common objective: reducing water use.
“My role is to ensure that the objectives we set can actually be achieved by making sure that people have the right information and the right contacts. I help coordinate the dozens of people for whom this is an important part of their work,” she explains.
Working at the intersection of operational performance and ESG reporting, Coralie supports teams in their efforts to reduce water withdrawals while ensuring the reliability of the data that is reported.
Water use in semiconductors
The microelectronics industry relies heavily on water. Ultra-pure water is used throughout the manufacturing process to clean and rinse wafers, which requires additional treatment.
"We have a responsibility to reduce water withdrawals as much as possible and increase water recycling wherever we can." Coralie notes.
To achieve this, teams work on two main areas: cutting consumption directly within facilities and production processes, and increasing water reuse throughout ultra-pure water systems and manufacturing equipment. Thanks to these efforts, 214,000 cubic meters of water were saved in 2025–2026 compared to 2020–2021, despite a higher production volume– the equivalent of 86 Olympic swimming pools.
Making data useful
Alongside her work on water management, Coralie also contributes to the CSRD* and the roll-out of Sphera, the platform used to collect and manage Soitec's ESG data. One of her priorities is ensuring that the information reported is both reliable and useful for operational teams, through new indicators and dashboards
For Coralie, the value of the CSRD goes far beyond regulatory compliance. She sees it as a way to bring greater transparency to the environmental and social impacts of companies:
"When you buy a product, you often look at the price and the packaging. The CSRD adds another perspective. It helps people understand the environmental and social cost, allowing them to compare companies on more than financial performance alone."
What drives her every day
What Coralie enjoys most is the human side of her job. She thrives on giving people the tools they need to make impactful changes.
For example, when lower production volumes created new challenges for water-efficiency targets, she brought people together to identify new solutions. The experience reinforced what motivates her most.
“It is rewarding to see that people genuinely want to make a difference and to work with teams that are motivated to tackle these issues."
For Coralie, sustainability is ultimately a collective effort: one that depends as much on people as it does on technology or data.
