Environmental record

In the 1990s, DuPont was a founding member of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development with then DuPont CEO Chad Holliday as chairman of the WBCSD from 2000 to 2001.^[46] The organization has developed guidelines for measuring sustainability cited by the Natural Resources Defense Council^[47] and the Environmental Defense Fund,^[48] and its Vision 2050 blueprint for slowing and reversing environmental damage has been highlighted by The Guardian.^[49]
In 2005, BusinessWeek magazine, in conjunction with the Climate Group, ranked DuPont as the best-practice leader in cutting their carbon gas emissions. DuPont reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by more than 65 percent from the 1990 levels while using 7 percent less energy and producing 30 percent more product.^[50][51]
In May 2007 the $2.1 million DuPont Nature Center at Mispillion Harbor Reserve, a wildlife observatory and interpretive center on the Delaware Bay near Milford, Delaware was opened to enhance the beauty and integrity of the Delaware Estuary. The facility will be state-owned and operated by the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC).^[52][53]
In 2010, researchers at the Political Economy Research Institute of the University of Massachusetts Amherst ranked DuPont as the fourth largest corporate source of air pollution in the United States.^[54] DuPont released a statement that 2012 total releases and transfers were 13% lower than 2011 levels, and 70% lower than 1987 levels.^[55] Data from the EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory database included in the Political Economy Research Institute studies likewise show a reduction in DuPont’s emissions from 12.4 million lbs of air releases and 22.4 million lbs of toxic incinerator transfers in 2006^[56] to 10.94 million lbs and 22.0 million pounds respectively in 2010. Over the same period, the Political Economy Research Institutes Toxic score for DuPont increased from 122,426 to 7,086,303.^[57]
One of DuPont's facilities was listed No. 4 on the Mother Jones Top 20 polluters of 2010, legally discharging over 5,000,000 pounds (2,300,000 kg) of toxic chemicals into New Jersey/Delaware waterways.^[58] In 2016, Carneys Point Township, New Jersey, where the facility is located, initiated a $1.1 billion lawsuit against the corporation, accusing it of divesting a unprofitable company with out first remediating the property as required by law.^[59]
In 2012 DuPont was named to the Carbon Disclosure Project Global 500 Leadership Index. Inclusion is based on company performance on sustainability metrics, emissions reduction goals, and environmental performance transparency.^[60] In 2014 DuPont was the top scoring company in the chemical sector according to CDP, with a score of "A" or "B" in every evaluation area except for supply chain management.^[61]
Between 2007 and 2014 there were 34 accidents resulting in toxic releases at DuPont plants across the U.S., with no fewer than 8 fatalities.^[62] Four employees died of suffocation in a Houston, Texas accident involving leakage of nearly 24,000 pounds (11,000 kg) of methyl mercaptan.^[63] As a result, the company became the largest of the 450 businesses placed into the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's "severe violator program" in July 2015. The program was established for companies OSHA says have repeatedly failed to address safety infractions.^[45][64]
DuPont was part of Global Climate Coalition, a group that lobbied against taking action on climate change.^[65]