DuPont

DuPont de Nemours is a specialty chemicals company that has undergone major changes in recent years. In 2015, DuPont completed the spin-off of their performance chemicals division (including the production of many hazardous chemicals) into a new publicly traded company called Chemours. Later that same year, it was followed by a merger of DuPont and Dow Chemical and the subsequent spin-offs of DOW (materials science), Corteva (agriculture) and DuPont (specialty products). DuPont is now working in the business fields of Nutrition & Health, Industrial Biosciences, Safety & Protection and Electronics & Communications.

Total score

10 / 48

Grade Summary

DuPont has a very large production of hazardous chemicals and data tells us that it is producing 36 highly hazardous chemicals, including four persistent chemicals, which leaves the company without a single point in the first category. The…

Product Portfolio

0 / 18

DuPont produces/uses 36 highly hazardous substances –33 SIN List chemicals, 7 PICs, and 6 HHPs – 11 of which are included on the EU’s REACH Candidate List. 1 of these highly hazardous substances are either banned or severely restricted, with set dates when production needs to cease (1 Authorisation List substances, and no POPs). The company produces 4 persistent chemicals. Persistent chemicals are particularly problematic, since they do not break down, but instead accumulate in humans and the environment. Because of this, persistent chemicals should be of extra concern for investors; substances that are not considered a problem today could become huge liabilities in the future.

Please note that there is no available data for the 57% of the company’s production that takes place outside of the EU and US. Lower EU/US production means higher uncertainty with regard to the total production of hazardous chemicals, which will have a negative impact on the company’s score in this category.

Development of Safer Chemicals

7 / 12

DuPont has a method in place to screen and assess the sustainability of its products and includes the intrinsic hazards of ingredients in the screening process. It does not, however, exclude substances with toxic properties from its new products. DuPont actively markets safer alternatives both on its own website as well as on ChemSec Marketplace. The company not any true circular products, processes or innovations. DuPont uses bio-based resources, but at the expense of occupying extra land or in competition with food production. It sources and treats recycled materials in a sustainable way, which is one of the key elements of a circular economy. DuPont is actively reducing the hazardous waste it generates.

Management & Transparency

3 / 12

The American company does not produce only sustainable products, and it does not have a timed phase-out strategy for hazardous substances that go beyond regulatory compliance. It shares chemical safety information on its website and is following a credible code of conduct standard. DuPont did not respond to ChemSec’s attempts to communicate around its ChemScore ranking and it does not share any information about what kind of chemicals it produces in regions with low regulatory demands for transparency (e.g. Asia). DuPont does have a circular economy program in place, but it is lacking objective and measurable circular economy targets.