October 24, 2004—DuPont has been awarded the National Medal of Technology—the highest honor for technological innovation in the U.S.—for its global leadership and innovation in developing alternative technology that reduced the environmental impact caused by ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons.
This is the fourth National Medal of Technology Award affiliated with DuPont in 13 years. In 1990, DuPont received the award for pioneering the development of high-performance polymers such as nylon, neoprene rubber and engineering plastics that revolutionized materials globally.
In the 1930s, DuPont commercialized CFCs to provide less hazardous alternatives to the sulfur dioxide and ammonia that were then used as refrigerants. Because of their superior safety and performance characteristics, CFCs became widely used in a number of applications—including refrigeration, air conditioning and medical inhalers for asthma patients.
DuPont understood in the early 1970s that CFCs were accumulating in the atmosphere and led a global research effort to gain a better scientific understanding of the environmental fate and potential impact of CFCs. The company also recognized that ozone depletion was a complex global issue with scientific, environmental, technological, societal, and economic aspects—including over $135 billion worth of installed equipment dependent on CFC products at the time.
The company was the first to commercialize environmentally acceptable hydrofluorocarbon refrigerants such as DuPont(TM) Suva(R), which enabled major industries—like refrigeration and air conditioning—to continue meeting societal needs with products that reduced the impact on ozone depletion. This effort led to the successful development of a series of alternatives for CFCs which substantially reduced the time from research to commercial production.
As part of its environmentally responsible sustainable growth mission, DuPont has set four goals for 2010, supplementing existing goals:
- To derive 25 percent of revenues from non-depletable resources.
- To reduce global carbon-equivalent greenhouse gas emissions by 65 percent, using 1990 as a base year. The company has already surpassed this goal with a 68 percent reduction.
- To hold energy use flat using 1990 as a base year.
- To source 10 percent of the company’s global energy use in the year 2010 from renewable resources.
