DuPont Summary

DuPont

CEO: Ellen J. Kullman; Revenues: $35.24 Billion (2012); Employees: 70,000 (2012)

DuPont is a science company. Founded in 1802, DuPont puts science to work by creating sustainable solutions essential to a better, safer, healthier life for people everywhere. Operating in more than 70 countries, DuPont offers a wide range of innovative products and services for markets including agriculture, nutrition, electronics, communications, safety and protection, home and construction, transportation and apparel. The company operates globally and offers a wide range of innovative products and services for markets including agriculture and food, building and construction, electronics and communications, general industrial, and transportation. The company’s reportable segments are Agriculture & Nutrition, Electronics & Communications, Performance Chemicals, Performance Coatings, Performance Materials, Safety & Protection, and Pharmaceuticals. DuPont is headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware.

Climate and Energy Targets

Greenhouse Gases:
- Since the early 1990s when DuPont began taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the company has achieved major global reductions in emissions. In 1994 DuPont established its first greenhouse gas emissions goal and committed to reduce emissions by 40 percent from our 1990 base. After meeting that goal, in 1999 DuPont established a new goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 65 percent from a 1990 base. By the end of 2003 it had reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 72 percent.
- DuPont's current goal current goal is to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions at least 15 percent from a base year of 2004 by 2015. By 2010, it had achieved a reduction of 10.5 percent.
Energy:
- DuPont currently sources 6.5 percent of total energy consumption from renewable energy sources and has a corporate goal to reduce its energy use from non-renewable sources by 10 percent per adjusted dollar revenue by 2020 compared to a baseline of 2010. DuPont has set a milestone of 3 percent by 2015.
Water:
- In 2006, DuPont set a water reduction goal of reducing water consumption by at least 30 percent at global sites that are located where the renewable freshwater supply is either scarce or stressed as determined by the United Nations analysis of river basins globally. For all other sites, we committed to hold water consumption flat on an absolute basis through the year 2015, offsetting any increased demand from production volume growth through conservation, reuse and recycle practices.

Did You Know?

Changing How We Fuel the World [1]

The cellulosic ethanol team collaborated across multiple sites, functions and organizational structures to develop and scale up a novel, integrated technology package to produce ethanol from agricultural wastes such as corn stover and energy crops such as switchgrass.

Climate and Sustainability Rankings & Recognition

2013: 100 Best Corporate Citizens List - #16
2012: Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) Global 500 Leadership Index
2012: Dow Jones Sustainability North America Index (DJSI)
2012: Best Places to Work for LGBT Employees
2012: Sustainable Biofuels Reward
2012: Patent Board Report Best in Industry
2011: Thomson Reuters 100 Most Innovative Companies
2011: Top 100 Best Places to Work for Working Mothers
2011: GE Ecomagination Leadership Award
2011: Queen's Award for Enterprise: Innovation

Additional Resources

DuPont Corporate Website [2]
DuPont Sustainability Website [3]

short description:

Dupont [4]is one of the world’s largest chemical companies

Energy Efficiency Initiatives

Success Stories Summary:

DuPont committed to its first energy goal in 1989 – to reduce energy use (measured in BTUs per pound of finished product) by 15 percent by 2000. By 2000, DuPont held total energy use flat versus 1990 levels, despite a 35 percent increase in production, and further committed to hold total energy use flat for the next decade. DuPont estimates that its energy efficiency initiatives saved the company about $4 billion between 1990 and 2008. DuPont’s energy per pound of product is down 41% versus 1990.
At Sabine River Works site (Texas), the company’s largest energy consuming location, DuPont improved overall site energy efficiency by 40 percent in 2008 versus the previous year, resulting in annualized energy savings of 1,564,000 MMBtu, and the equivalent greenhouse gas reduction of 181,000 tons.
DuPont achieved this through a program of process improvements and capital expenditures. Some of the specific projects that contributed to improvement include improved process distillation, process to process heat exchanges, improved furnace combustion, improved turbine drive blades and nozzles, reduced fouling of heat exchanger surfaces, and preheating of process streams.

Internal Operations summary:

DuPont committed to its first energy goal in 1989 – to reduce energy use (measured in BTUs per pound of finished product) by 15 percent by 2000. By 2000, DuPont held total energy use flat versus 1990 levels, despite a 35 percent increase in production, and further committed to hold total energy use flat for the next decade. DuPont estimates that its energy efficiency initiatives saved the company about $4 billion between 1990 and 2008.
To accelerate the company’s improvement in energy efficiency, DuPont has extended their “Bold Energy Plan” to 2012. This plan requires the company’s 100 largest sites to establish an annual energy reduction target based on the elimination of defects in energy-using systems. Collectively, the sites are working on over 500 defect-elimination projects that will continue to reduce energy use globally.
DuPont set a goal to transition its sales and marketing fleet to more fuel-efficient vehicles, with the goal of a 100 percent energy-efficient fleet by 2015.
At Sabine River Works site (Texas), the company’s largest energy consuming location, DuPont improved overall site energy efficiency by 40 percent in 2008 versus the previous year, resulting in annualized energy savings of 1,564,000 MMBtu, and the equivalent greenhouse gas reduction of 181,000 tons.
DuPont achieved this through a program of process improvements and capital expenditures. Some of the specific projects that contributed to improvement include improved process distillation, process to process heat exchanges, improved furnace combustion, improved turbine drive blades and nozzles, reduced fouling of heat exchanger surfaces, and preheating of process streams.

Products & Services summary:

DuPont has set a corporate goal to increase its annual revenues by at least $2 billion by 2015 from products that create energy efficiency and/or significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. DuPont estimates these products will result in at least 40 million tons of additional carbon dioxide equivalent reductions by its customers and consumers.
DuPont is committed to bringing solar energy into the mainstream by reducing the cost of current photovoltaic systems by 50-60 percent, improving system efficiency, lifetime, and system cost with new technical centers and labs situated around the world. DuPont is also working to improve cell metallization that dramatically increases the efficiency of a solar cell, innovating technology to reduce material consumption, introducing new cell and module designs, eliminating the need for some materials altogether, and finding ways to make modules lighter thereby reducing the cost of construction and installation.
In biofuels, DuPont is studying advances made from plant materials including corn and sugarcane as well as non-food, cellulosic feedstocks such as corn stover, switchgrass, and algae.
Tyvek, a synthetic material developed by DuPont used commonly in construction, can improve energy efficiency of buildings, with energy savings in the first year of use 10-20 times the energy required for production.
DuPont is engineering polymers in applications like intake manifolds to help reduce the weight of motor vehicles and improve fuel efficiency.
DuPont has other products that promote energy efficiency, such as the Cyrel® FAST printing systems that use less energy than other flexo printing systems and Nomex® which is used as an insulating material in wind turbines.

belcdupont DuPont [4] is a member of the Business Environmental Leadership Council (BELC), the largest U.S.-based association of companies dedicated to business and policy solutions to climate change. DuPont is a science company. Founded in 1802, the company puts science to work by creating sustainable solutions essential to a better, safer, healthier life for people everywhere. Operating in more than 70 countries, DuPont offers a wide range of innovative products and services for markets including agriculture, nutrition, electronics, communications, safety and protection, home and construction, transportation and apparel.

BELC Abstracts

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