Sep 21 2006
For the second straight year, DuPont has been invited to participate at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York City. Linda J. Fisher, DuPont chief sustainability officer, will speak as part of the "Saving Energy" panel during the Energy and Climate Change working session, scheduled for tomorrow.
Fisher will discuss the need to engage third parties, develop comprehensive policies and lead innovation and change to drive energy savings.
"Over a decade ago, we set a goal to hold our energy use flat at 1990 levels. We have exceeded that goal; our current energy use is 6 percent below our target. Along the way we have saved more than $3 billion and grown our businesses by 30 percent," said Fisher. "The focus on energy has contributed to our greenhouse gas reductions, which are 72 percent below 1990 levels. Today we are looking beyond our own energy profile to develop new products and offerings to help our customers address energy efficiency. We believe this will provide growth opportunities for a number of our businesses."
DuPont's energy savings are based on the use of improved process controls; optimization of energy generation and distribution at its facilities; new technologies with lower energy consumption; and one of the biggest factors - improved yields from DuPont's manufacturing processes. DuPont also is reducing the use of fossil fuels by employing alternative energy sources such as landfill gas.
As an example, DuPont is capturing methane landfill gas previously burned for waste and is piping it into facilities at sites in Memphis, Tenn., and Mobile, Ala. for use as fuel in industrial boilers which provide heat and steam energy to run the plants. DuPont's total savings from the landfill gas projects exceed $8 million per year. The projects remove CO2 emissions equivalent to almost 78,000 vehicles or more than 900,000 barrels of oil. The company began utilizing landfill gas in 2004.
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