Believing it can do well by doing good, DuPont Co on Tuesday said it will focus over the next decade on developing environmentally friendly products, using renewable resources and meeting new pollution reduction goals.
The Wilmington-based chemical company said it expects to derive additional revenue of US$6 billion or more by 2015 from its new sustainable growth strategy.
A key component of the expanded sustainability effort is doubling the funding for research and development of "environmentally smart" technologies and products to US$800 million, DuPont chief executive Charles Holliday Jr said.
The company also plans to increase annual revenue from products that improve energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by US$2 billion, and to double annual revenue from non-depletable resources such as biofuels to at least US$8 billion by 2015.
A fourth marketplace goal is to introduce at least 1,000 new safety products or services by 2015, Holliday told representatives of the business, environmental and scientific communities at a gathering in Washington.
"What we're talking about today is very much going where the growth is," he said. "We see sustainable growth as the biggest market opportunity on the horizon for the next two or three decades."
The tools DuPont will use to meet its marketing goals include genetically modified seeds to boost yields of crops used for biofuels, synthetic fibers made with biological components instead of petrochemicals, refrigerants with lower global warming potential, and automotive finishes with fewer volatile organic compounds.
At the same time, DuPont will work to reduce its own greenhouse gas emissions, already down more than 70 percent since 1990, by at least another 15 percent from 2004. The company will also reduce water consumption by at least 30 percent over the next 10 years in areas deemed by the UN to have scarce or stressed fresh water supplies.
"We're going to look at conservation; we're going to look at re-use," said Linda Fisher, DuPont's chief sustainability officer.
DuPont also plans to develop a corporate fleet of fuel-efficient and alternative fuel vehicles, and to further reduce its emissions of air carcinogens, already down by more than 90 percent since 1990.
NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT: An official said that Guan Guan’s comments had gone beyond the threshold of free speech, as she advocated for the destruction of the ROC China-born media influencer Guan Guan’s (關關) residency permit has been revoked for repeatedly posting pro-China content that threatens national security, the National Immigration Agency said yesterday. Guan Guan has said many controversial things in her videos posted to Douyin (抖音), including “the red flag will soon be painted all over Taiwan” and “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China,” while expressing hope for expedited “reunification.” The agency received multiple reports alleging that Guan Guan had advocated for armed reunification last year. After investigating, the agency last month issued a notice requiring her to appear and account for her actions. Guan Guan appeared as required,
A strong cold air mass is expected to arrive tonight, bringing a change in weather and a drop in temperature, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The coldest time would be early on Thursday morning, with temperatures in some areas dipping as low as 8°C, it said. Daytime highs yesterday were 22°C to 24°C in northern and eastern Taiwan, and about 25°C to 28°C in the central and southern regions, it said. However, nighttime lows would dip to about 15°C to 16°C in central and northern Taiwan as well as the northeast, and 17°C to 19°C elsewhere, it said. Tropical Storm Nokaen, currently
PAPERS, PLEASE: The gang exploited the high value of the passports, selling them at inflated prices to Chinese buyers, who would treat them as ‘invisibility cloaks’ The Yilan District Court has handed four members of a syndicate prison terms ranging from one year and two months to two years and two months for their involvement in a scheme to purchase Taiwanese passports and resell them abroad at a massive markup. A Chinese human smuggling syndicate purchased Taiwanese passports through local criminal networks, exploiting the passports’ visa-free travel privileges to turn a profit of more than 20 times the original price, the court said. Such criminal organizations enable people to impersonate Taiwanese when entering and exiting Taiwan and other countries, undermining social order and the credibility of the nation’s
‘SALAMI-SLICING’: Beijing’s ‘gray zone’ tactics around the Pratas Islands have been slowly intensifying, with the PLA testing Taiwan’s responses and limits, an expert said The Ministry of National Defense yesterday condemned an intrusion by a Chinese drone into the airspace of the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) as a serious disruption of regional peace. The ministry said it detected the Chinese surveillance and reconnaissance drone entering the southwestern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone early yesterday, and it approached the Pratas Islands at 5:41am. The ministry said it immediately notified the garrison stationed in the area to enhance aerial surveillance and alert levels, and the drone was detected in the islands’ territorial airspace at 5:44am, maintaining an altitude outside the effective range of air-defense weaponry. Following
RSS