The second is our commitment to scientific discovery in a way that turns this discovery into value that is accepted and sought after by society. What has not stayed the same over time is the products we make and the markets we serve these have changed dramatically over time. In 1999 alone, we have sold a major oil business, and acquired a major automotive paints business and the world's largest seed company. By this I mean, we must create both shareholder and societal value while we reduce our environmental footprint . And, this must be viewed along the entire value chains in which we operate.
Sustainable growth is our operational definition of sustainable development.
The greening of industry relates very importantly to our concept of environmental footprint. But our definition of environmental footprint is much broader than the traditional industrial measures of wastes and emissions. Using footprint as one metric for the greening of DuPont , over the past decade we have maintained our position as one of the safest industrial companies in the world by almost an order of magnitude and we have reduced major incidents from a level of over 100 in the early 1990's to almost zero in 1998 and 1999. The story on waste is also significant. From a classical environmental viewpoint, the metrics show that DuPont has reduced hazardous waste from our global operations 20 percent during the 1990s while production has increased 35 percent.