Design 100% of our products and processes using sustainability criteria including the principles of green chemistry
Roadmap to 2030
To begin working on our ten-year ambition, we will first:
01
Develop and implement a company chemical management policy including governance for chemicals of concern
02
Expand the integration of safer design principles into new product development and our existing product portfolio
03
Collaborate to promote the adoption of sustainable and green chemistry
Safer and more sustainable, by design
Scientific inventions and the materials and technologies derived from them have shaped much of our modern way of life. At DuPont, we find our motivation to keep going, every day, in the potential for new materials and technologies that will shape an even better world.
As scientists, our commitment is to find and develop the discoveries that will make the world safer and more sustainable, and that requires careful choices at every step of the process. It means making sure innovators throughout our company understand the principles of green chemistry and cultivating a product stewardship mindset in everything we do. It means collaborating across industries to review, develop, and champion the science and practices that will define what it means to be safer. And it means continually strengthening our processes and our portfolio to address key areas of concern and to stay relevant and aware as we learn more and the field develops.
Safety, health and protecting the planet are DuPont core values. As a company that constantly pushes to break new scientific discoveries, we have to responsibly navigate unknown territories to bring the world safe, reliable solutions to everyday challenges. DuPont learns from its past, including the past of its heritage companies like E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company and The Dow Chemical Company, so that we can innovate for the future.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of chemicals used to manufacture many everyday household products and firefighting foam since the 1940s. PFAS is a classification that includes thousands of materials with very different properties; some PFAS, like PFOA and PFOS, are considered “long-chain” chemicals. Long-chain substances are often bio-persistent, which means that they tend to remain inside a biological organism, rather than being expelled or broken down.
DuPont does not make PFOA, PFOS or GenX. Further, DuPont never manufactured or sold firefighting foam. Across our portfolio, DuPont’s use of other PFAS is a small fraction of the total PFAS used in the world. While our use is extremely small, we’re actively pursuing alternatives to PFAS where possible in our manufacturing processes.
DuPont is committed to being a responsible partner in addressing concerns about the health and environmental impacts of PFOA. The knowledge base around PFOA and other PFAS environmental footprint and health effects continues to evolve through work led by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and other health and environmental organizations around the world. We’re committed to working with regulatory bodies and agencies to support their efforts to develop science-based guidelines.
In 2019, we eliminated the use of long-chain PFAS from our products and processes, including recently integrated operations. See our PFAS commitments for more updates on our progress. These commitments, along with our Safer by Design goal, will help ensure that we consistently live our core values.
Assessing product safety-related risks, including health and safety impacts, is a core part of DuPont's product innovation process. Our comprehensive Product Stewardship and Regulatory Management systems align with the Responsible Care® specifications issued by the American Chemistry Council (ACC). It's an integral process that DuPont businesses use globally to assess and manage potential risks associated with each product, and to regularly identify opportunities for continuous improvements throughout the product life cycle.
Our businesses conduct a product stewardship review before any product or service is commercialized, and if there are significant changes to the product raw materials or end use applications, manufacturing process, regulations or other relevant risk factors.
As part of our commitment to Responsible Care, DuPont businesses routinely audit their PS&R Management Systems to ensure they are effective and align with the ACC Product Safety Code. As an added level of assurance, we conduct third-party audits of a sampling of our businesses, our U.S. chemical manufacturing sites and our headquarters every three years to verify that our Responsible Care® program continues to meet or exceed the ACC’s requirements. In 2019, a third party audited our product stewardship program and found it to be in conformance with these requirements. The next external audit will happen in 2022.
Learn more about how we manage product stewardship in our GRI Index.
Our Stories
Helping Improve product stewardship across all industries
In 2020, with the support of our data provider, Verisk 3E, and in line with DuPont’s PFAS commitments, we will make the DuPont Chemical Awareness Toolkit (CAT) freely available to the public online
Safer, Greener Building Materials
To improve overall safety and address energy and climate requirements, the industry needed a less toxic, more environmentally friendly solution, without any compromise on safety performance.
More Goals
Delivering Solutions for Global Challenges
Align 100% of our innovation portfolio to meaningfully advance the UN SDGs and create value for our customers
Delivering Solutions for Global Challenges
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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 and Inclusion
Become one of the world’s most inclusive companies, with diversity well ahead of industry benchmarks.
Accelerating Diversity 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.