DuPont - Chemical Security

• Company: DuPont
• Subject: Inherently Safer Chemical Production
• Year: 2007
• Sector: Chemical Production
• Lead Filer: Green Century Capital Management
• Outcome: Vote: 6.7%

Whereas:

• Whereas: Security at chemical facilities has become one of the most important issues facing our country. Across the United States, thousands of facilities use and store extremely hazardous substances in large quantities that pose major risks to surrounding communities, employees, and the environment;
• Whereas: According to Risk Management Plans (RMPs) filed by companies with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, at over 100 of these facilities more than one million people live in the area where they could be seriously injured or killed i>n the event of a catastrophic incident such as a chemical accident or terrorist attack;
• Whereas: A report by the Army Surgeon General in 2003 ranked an attack on a chemical plant second only to a widespread biological attack in the magnitude of its hazard to the public. Numerous other government agencies and private groups have published warnings about these dangers. (http://www.crtk.org/library_files/ChemicalWarnings.pdf);
• Whereas: It is often possible for a company to increase the inherent security of a facility and decrease the number of people at risk of harm by switching to chemicals that are less acutely hazardous, reducing the quantities of extremely hazardous substances stored at facilities, altering the processes used at facilities, or locating facilities outside densely populated areas;
• Whereas: Improving physical security through such steps as hiring additional security guards and building perimeter fences will not reduce the number of people endangered by a facility;
• Whereas: DuPont operates thirty-three facilities in the United States that combined put a total of over nine million people at risk in the event of a catastrophic release of chemicals caused by an accident or terrorist attack, according to an independent report analyzing RMPs filed by our Company with the EPA as of 2004 (http://uspirg.org/uspirg.asp?id2=13532&id3=USPIRG&). These facilities use large quantities of extremely hazardous substances including hydrofluoric acid, chlorine, hydrochloric acid, oleum (fuming sulfuric acid), phosgene, sulfur trioxide, and titanium tetrachloride;
• Whereas: Shareholders know little about our Company’s efforts to prevent and reduce the magnitude of catastrophic incidents at its facilities. Our Company’s most recent 10-K and 10-Q filings contain no information on the possibility of such incidents and their potential impact on the Company or on employees, surrounding communities, and the environment;

Resolved:

Shareholders request that the independent directors of the Board of DuPont prepare a report, at reasonable cost and omitting proprietary information, on the implications of a policy for reducing potential harm and the number of people in danger from potential catastrophic chemical releases by increasing the inherent security of DuPont facilities through such steps as reducing the use and storage of extremely hazardous substances, reengineering processes, and locating facilities outside high-population areas. The report should be available to investors by the 2008 annual meeting.