The DuPont Corporation & the DuPont DeLisle Plant Garners Presidental Candidate Barack Obama’s Praise
The paper reported: It was Barack Obama's birthday Monday, but the Democratic presidential candidate was the one bearing gifts. In a speech in Lansing, Mich., Obama cited the DuPont Co. of Wilmington as an example of energy frugality as he called for the country to cut its demand for electricity 15 percent by the end of the next decade.
"Since DuPont implemented an energy-efficiency program in 1990, the company has significantly reduced its pollution and cut its energy bills by $3 billion," Obama said. "The state of California has implemented such a successful efficiency strategy that while electricity consumption grew 60 percent in this country over the last three decades, it didn't grow at all in California.
"There is no reason America can't do the same thing." The praise was a pleasant surprise for DuPont, said company spokesman Anthony Farina.
The industrial giant, which operates about 300 plants around the world, said in a recent progress report that it used 7 percent less energy in 2006 than it did in 1990. The company said it has been able to accomplish energy reduction through initiatives like "energy breakouts," where teams at individual sites look at ways to operate more efficiently.
DuPont said the 47 plants participating in the initiative were able to save more than $60 million in energy costs in two years.
In another initiative, DuPont's titanium dioxide pigment plant in DeLisle, Miss., converted its boiler to use landfill gas in addition to natural gas, saving the company more than $1 million a year in energy costs. Farina said efficiency initiatives extend to strategies as simple as turning off lights in unoccupied rooms in DuPont's Wilmington headquarters. "At the end of the day, it all comes down to culture," he said. "This doesn't happen overnight."
In his wide-ranging speech on energy policy, Obama said the United States should set a goal of making its buildings 50 percent more efficient in the next four years and tie utility company profits to energy savings. Farina said DuPont has stepped up efforts in recent years to apply products such as Tyvek® insulating home wrap to help customers and consumers improve their energy efficiency.
It was unclear how DuPont came to be mentioned in Obama's speech. The Illinois senator's campaign representatives did not respond to a request for comment Monday. One connection between Obama and DuPont is Daniel Esty, an environmental law professor at Yale who advises the Obama campaign on environmental and energy issues. Esty, who could not be reached Monday, wrote the 2006 book "Green to Gold," which prominently featured DuPont in its discussion of environmental responsibility.
Farina said DuPont has had no discussions with the Obama campaign, but the company is often recognized for its sustainability efforts. "If you follow energy efficiency, if you follow footprint reduction among industry, we're very well known globally for this leadership," he said.
