DuPont and Sustainability Reporting

The 2015 Sustainability Report for DuPont reads, ¥tween now and 2050, the worldàpopulation will climb to 9 billion, placing growing demands on our planetàscarce resources. This means the world needs plentiful, healthier food, renewably sourced materials, ample energy, and better infrastructure and transportation. We are poised to deliver. owever, not too long after this report was released, an article was published that for years DuPont had been supplied with the chemical PFOA, used in the manufacture of Teflon, and it was polluting the air and drinking water near its Parkersburg, West Virginia facility, dumping the chemical into the Ohio River and digestion ponds that could seep into the ground. DuPont stopped using PFOA in 2013, but the story highlighted the shortcomings in the regulatory environment, because PFOA and its newer fluorochemical substitutes are not regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency, separate from provisional limits on short-term exposure.

1. To what extent does sustainability reporting address the future, rather than the past? What is a company to do when their sustainability report is positive but they later are found not to live up to their past report? Can sustainability reports work against a company in this regard?

2. In its 2015 Sustainability Report, DuPont, Chair and CEO noted, 5Pont has come a long way since the 1970s when our focus was on our environmental compliance. ow can newer sustainability reports address these issues?

3. DuPont agreed to a $16.5 million settlement with the E.P.A. in 2015 for PFOA, but over 3,500 plaintiffs have since filed lawsuits against DuPont for issues that range from kidney cancer to ulcerative colitis. How can DuPont bring more consistency between its stated commitments in its Sustainability Reports and later reported violations?