Align 100% of our innovation portfolio to meaningfully advance the UN SDGs and create value for our customers
Roadmap to 2030
To begin working on our ten-year ambition, we will first:
01
Prioritize SDG challenge areas in early stage marketing and innovation processes
02
Integrate sustainability criteria into M&A and investment decisions
03
Enact partnerships for scalable impact to advance SDGs
DuPont’s 2030 Sustainability Goals are also helping to shape our innovation agenda and processes. We designed the goals to be challenging—to provoke technological breakthroughs and new ideas for addressing society’s biggest challenges. Now our innovation teams are working to determine how we will do it.
Ask any scientist why they got into science in the first place, and they’ll likely say because they were curious about the world around them and wanted to have a role in changing it for the better. For inspiration on how create that change, DuPont looks to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to see what global challenges we face that need to be solved now. Then we dig deeper to ask, “What is DuPont able to contribute to the effort?”
Aligning our science and innovation to the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) helps us gauge what the biggest market drivers will be in the years to come and chart a clear path ahead for our businesses. We’ve identified seven of the 17 SDGs where we believe our science and innovation capabilities can make a significant contribution to address important and valuable societal challenges and create value.
At DuPont we are helping to advance the SDGs by working on innovations like:
- Our DuPont™ Danisco® Nurica™ enzyme and our POWERFresh® anti-staling enzymes and HOLDBAC® protective cultures to help meet the goals of eliminating hunger and promoting wellbeing (SDGs 2 and 3).
- Our Water Solutions portfolio to advance water security and water quality worldwide (SDG 6).
- Our investments in the AHEAD™ automotive electrification program to transform the automobile industry, increasing energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions (SDG 7 and 13).
- Our work in 5G High Speed Connectivity to enable more connected, sustainable communities (SDG 11).
- Our healthcare innovations — which enable advances in biopharmaceuticals, wound care, sterile medical packaging, drug delivery, device fabrication, and other areas — will improve health outcomes for millions of people worldwide (SDG 3).
- And our efforts to identify beneficial uses for production byproducts and to expand our Tyvek® recycling program to help to bring about more responsible consumption and production on a global scale (SDG 12).
Our investments in the AHEAD™ automotive electrification program to transform the automobile industry, increasing energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions (SDG 7 and 13).
DuPont develops globally applicable technology solutions, but we recognize that our technologies, products and market applications need to be locally relevant—they need to match our customers’ unique and individual needs and the markets they serve. Innovating close to the customer yields the highest impact and fastest results, so we’ve strengthened our operating model by fully embedding our research & development teams into our businesses while retaining corporate capabilities that can be leveraged by the businesses.
In 2019, we had Innovation Centers in 11 strategic locations globally: Brazil, China, India, Russia, Switzerland, Japan, Taiwan, Turkey, United States: Silicon Valley, CA; Auburn Hills, MI; Wilmington, DE. And 14 major R&D Centers, in: Brazil, China, Denmark, Korea, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Japan, Taiwan, India, United States: Palo Alto, CA, Wilmington, DE, Marlborough, MA, Midland, MI.
At our 11 Innovation Centers around the world, DuPont scientists meet customers, partners, academic researchers and others to discuss ways our latest technologies can help solve their most pressing challenges. We’ve designed the centers to support co-creation and collaboration, making them true epicenters for innovators from DuPont and the world at large. We take these insights back to our research centers and use them to advance the process of scientific discovery and technological development innovation for new products, new applications, new business models and new manufacturing processes.
Every day, DuPont scientists and engineers come together across disciplines, and roll up their sleeves to leverage each other’s work for new applications, a style of innovation that has given rise to world-changing innovations and tens of thousands of patents. Today, our teams collaborate on a global scale, whether they’re connecting across great distances via digital platforms or are meeting face-to-face in our research facilities or at our innovation-focused employee events.
While we have dozens of business-specific technology and R&D facilities globally, innovators from across DuPont converge in our 14 multi-business research centers, to collaborate on developing new solutions and finding new applications for existing technologies.
To catalyze progress on key industry and societal challenges, we’ve initiated several new innovation programs focused on specific areas. In healthcare, for example, scientists and innovators from across DuPont’s businesses have been working together to identify and move forward on potential solutions to some of the healthcare industry’s biggest and most pressing challenges.
We’re focusing on areas of emerging science where we can leverage multiple DuPont technologies to enable rapid progress. Through collaboration across DuPont’s businesses and beyond, we believe we can help the healthcare industry make biological pharmaceuticals that are safer and more affordable; develop drug delivery devices that will increase patients’ compliance and save healthcare costs; and introduce surgical and wearable devices that can prevent, diagnose and treat disease in ways that are not possible today.
Identifying new ways to leverage our technologies is only the first step. Ultimately, we want to convert market needs and our technology capabilities into commercially viable solutions. So, we continue to strengthen our processes that enable us to identify and prioritize our strategic innovation platforms, identify any gaps in our capabilities, and, if necessary, bring in third-party expertise to fill those gaps—by working with external collaborators and partners or by acquiring businesses with unique capabilities that make them a good fit to become part of DuPont.
More Goals
Enabling a Circular Economy
Integrate circular economy principles into our business models considering lifecycle impacts in the markets we serve.
Enabling a Circular Economy
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Innovating Safer By Design
Design 100% of our products and processes using sustainability criteria including the principles of green chemistry.
Innovating Safer By Design
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Acting on Climate
Reduce greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions 30%, including sourcing 60% of electricity from renewable energy by 2030, and deliver carbon neutral operations by 2050.
Acting on Climate
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Leading Water Stewardship
Implement holistic water strategies across all facilities, prioritizing manufacturing plants and communities in high-risk watersheds; and enable millions of people access to clean water through leadership in advancing water technology and enacting strategic partnerships.
Leading Water Stewardship
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World-Class Health and Safety
World-Class Health and Safety
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Accelerating Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Become one of the world’s most inclusive companies, with diversity well ahead of industry benchmarks.
Accelerating Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
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Cultivating Well-Being and Fulfillment
Create a workplace where employees report high levels of well-being and fulfillment.
Cultivating Well-Being and Fulfillment
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Building Thriving Communities
Improve over 100 million lives through targeted social impact programs.