DuPont Issues 2016 Sustainability Report

DuPont has released its 2016 Sustainability Report, highlighting progress against its 2020 Sustainability Goals and ongoing commitment to areas such as food security, environmental stewardship, and diversity and inclusion. 

“DuPont has a long history of developing sustainable solutions for a remarkable number of industries,” said Krysta Harden, DuPont vice president of Public Policy and chief sustainability officer.  “We understand that to carry that legacy of success into the future, DuPont must not only innovate relentlessly to create value for our customers but also continue to integrate sustainability into how we operate and what we produce to also create value for society.  Our sustainability goals and commitments do just that.”

DuPont 2020 Sustainability Goals and Environmental Stewardship

The DuPont 2020 Sustainability Goals – announced in 2015 and comprised of Innovation, Food Security, and Environmental Footprint – represent the next step in the company’s more than 25-year commitment to sustainability.  In 2015, DuPont continued to drive progress against all four of its Food Security Goals and surpassed an interim target of 3% reduction in its energy intensity goal.  The company also established new 2015 baselines for its goal to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions intensity 7% by 2020, as well as business-specific waste and water goals. 

In addition to setting new goals and establishing baselines in 2015, DuPont still improved its environmental footprint in several areas.  The company reduced its corporate greenhouse gas emissions by 4.6% below 2014 and by 7.5% below 2010.  We also continued to improve our performance with other emissions, water, and the beneficial use of waste.  Finally, we reaffirmed our commitment to climate change in 2015 by lending our voice to a number of forums advocating for a successful outcome at the Paris climate negotiations (COP 21). 

Advancing Food Security

In 2012, DuPont set an ambitious set of Food Security Goals, part of our overall DuPont 2020 Sustainability Goals.  These goals were conceived in the spirit of “what gets measured gets done”, focus on innovating to feed the world, engaging and educating youth, and improving rural communities.  In 2015, we made important progress in each area:

1. Innovating to Feed the World.  DuPont is committed to investing $10 billion in research and development and introducing 4,000 new products by the end of 2020.  In 2015, we invested $1.1 billion in R&D, bringing our total to just under $5 billion.  We also introduced 633 new products.
2. Engaging and Educating Youth.  By the end of 2020, DuPont will facilitate 2 million engagements with young people around the world to transfer the knowledge of sustainable food and agriculture and the impact it will have on a growing population.  In 2014, we exceeded our target but remained committed to continuing progress and in 2015 we engaged nearly 200,000 additional youth. 
3. Improving Rural Communities.  DuPont will work to improve the livelihoods of at least 3 million farmers and their rural communities through targeted collaborations and investments that strengthen agricultural systems and make food more available, nutritious and culturally available.  This is in addition to the work already being done by DuPont to enhance the lives of hundreds of millions of farmers through our normal business practices.  Through 2015, we have improved the livelihoods of approximately 1.2 million farmers and their rural communities.      

Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

Building our diverse workforce and treating all employees, customers, business partners and communities with respect has been a DuPont core value since our company’s founding over 210 year ago.  Over the last year, DuPont continued to make strides against its diversity and inclusion strategy and was recognized for its commitment by a number of forums. 

DiversityInc named DuPont one of its 25 Noteworthy Companies for Diversity and the National Association of Female Executives listed the company among its Top Companies for Executive Women for the 12^th year and 8^th consecutive year.  In addition, for the ninth time, DuPont was recognized by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) as a best place to work for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality and was one of the 407 companies that scored 100% on the 2016 Corporate Equality Index (CEI), the benchmarking tool on corporate policies and practices pertinent to LGBTs.

Working Mother magazine, one of the leading U.S. magazines dedicated to women in business, also named DuPont one of the 2016 Working Mother 100 Best Companies for its commitment to progressive workplace programs, including advancement of women, flexibility, child care and paid parental leave. 2016 was the 27th year DuPont has received this honor.  Finally, DuPont received the top score of 100 on the 2016 Disability Equality Index® (DEI®), and is deemed a "2016 DEI Best Places to Work."  The Disability Equality Index offers businesses the opportunity to objectively measure their full inclusion of people with disabilities as employees, suppliers, and customers.

To learn more, please visit our Sustainability and Diversity & Inclusion sites.