Sustainable growth, the DuPont way

Like many manufacturers, DuPont traditionally has grown by making more and more "stuff." And its business growth has been proportional to the amount of raw materials and energy used--as well as the resulting waste and emissions from operations. Over the years, though, DuPont became aware that cheap supplies of nonrenewable resources wouldn't be endlessly available and that the earth's ecosystems couldn't indefinitely absorb the waste and emissions of production and consumption. Chad Holliday, chairman and CEO of DuPont, believes strongly in the challenge of sustainable growth and makes the business case for it: By using creativity and scientific knowledge effectively, he says, companies can provide strong returns for shareholders and grow their businesses--while also meeting the human needs of societies around the world and reducing the environmental footprint of their operations and products. In fact, a focus on sustainability can help identify new products, markets, partnerships, and intellectual property and lead to substantial business growth. Holliday describes how DuPont developed a three-pronged strategy to translate the concept of sustainability into nuts-and-bolts business practices. Focusing on integrated science, knowledge intensity, and productivity improvement, the strategy was accompanied by a new way to measure progress quantitatively. Sustainable growth should be viewed not as a program for stepped-up environmental performance but as a comprehensive way of doing business, one that delivers tremendous economic value and opens up new opportunities. Ultimately, companies will find that they can generate substantial business value through sustainability while both enhancing the quality of life around the world and protecting the environment.