Engaging stakeholders and establishing collaborative partnerships is an essential element of our ESG strategy. By engaging with a wide variety of stakeholders on a regular basis, we build a clearer understanding of complex global challenges and of the local conditions in the countries where we do business. The fundamental principles of Dow’s ongoing engagement strategy are:
Stakeholder Group GRI 102-40 | Mechanism and Frequency of Engagement |
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Customers | Customers are engaged frequently throughout the year through events, meetings, emails, surveys and social media. |
Suppliers | Suppliers are engaged frequently throughout the year through calls, emails and surveys. |
Employees (and Prospective Employees) |
Employees are engaged frequently throughout the year through surveys, emails, internet postings, individual conversations, meetings, training and others. Numerous opportunities are provided for employees at all levels to provide input into ESG practices and strategy. |
Community/Society | Communities are engaged regularly through meetings and other communication with groups such as Community Advisory Panels, United Way, Habitat for Humanity, Keep America Beautiful and others. Wider communication with communities is through social media. |
Regulators | Regulators are engaged as part of normal operations for Dow teams through meetings, emails and calls. These engagements can be standard sharing of information or more detailed conversations about particular regulatory issues of interest. |
Shareholders/Investors | Shareholders and investors are engaged regularly through meetings, conferences and the media. Dow’s Investor Relations function works to deliver relevant information about Dow’s activities and collects information about shareholder and investor ESG priorities and strategies. |
The Customer Experience surveys are a main source of soliciting insight annually from our customers and distributors. Surveys are sent to any direct customer or distributor contact who has interacted with us over the previous 12 months at any touchpoint along the customer journey. The contact is asked about their overall experience working with Dow during that time. This provides us with the Customer Experience Index (CXi). More interaction-specific questions related to the contact’s specific role are also asked to gain further insights around their online and offline experiences with Dow. In addition to the Customer Experience Survey, Dow teams regularly engage with our customers directly. We reinforced accountability and transparency across the company by adding a CXi component to our Executive Compensation and employee Performance Award programs, recognizing that customers are critical to Dow’s success and every employee has an impact on customer loyalty.
Throughout the year, members of the management team and, in some cases, members of the Board, continued extensive outreach to stockholders, engaging with investors who collectively held approximately 75% of outstanding shares of common stock of the company. Through this outreach, the management team updated investors on a range of topics, and also gained an understanding of the perspectives and concerns of each investor. The Board and management team carefully consider the feedback from these meetings, as well as stockholder support for our most recent advisory vote on executive compensation, when reviewing the business, corporate governance and executive compensation profiles.
The company continually evaluates enhancements to our corporate governance, ESG and executive compensation practices, and appreciates engaging key stakeholders - including our stockholders - in the evaluation of these enhancements. For example, as we made the following recent decisions:
Engagement with regulators in all our geographies of operations throughout 2020 was primarily done via email and virtual calls on a regular basis, including direct exchanges or in conjunction with our trade associations. During 2020, many topics were covered during these interactions. These topics included COVID-19 response, safe return-to-work conditions, social justice, diversity and inclusion, voting rights, trade, climate change and plastics regulations.
Responsible Care® Management System | Voluntary initiative of the global chemical industry, a requirement of membership in the American Chemistry Council |
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United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) | Voluntary participant since 2007. Requires commitment to meet fundamental responsibilities and report progress in four areas: human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption. Caring for Climate Signatory. |
Sustainable Packaging Coalition | Founding partner. Helped initiate a store drop-off program for hard-to-recycle plastics. |
Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) | Voluntary commitment in 2017 to report according to the TCFD recommendations by 2022. Member of the task force that established original recommendations in 2017 and continued participation in development of additional TCFD guidance. |
Trash Free Seas® Alliance (TFSA) | Founding member of this voluntary, by-invitation alliance in 2012. The Alliance unites industry, science and conservation leaders who share a common goal for a healthy ocean free of trash. The Alliance provides a constructive forum focused on identifying opportunities for cross-sector solutions that drive action and foster innovation. |
Keep America Beautiful (KAB) | Voluntary corporate partner. Dow leaders are on the Board. |
CEO Water Mandate | Voluntary participant since 2008. The CEO Water Mandate mobilizes a critical mass of business leaders to address global water challenges through corporate water stewardship, in partnership with the United Nations, governments, civil society organizations and other stakeholders. |
Operation Clean Sweep® (OCS) | Pledged partner in this initiative of the American Chemistry Council designed to prevent and help keep plastic out of the marine environment. |
Alliance to End Plastic Waste | Founding member of organization with the goal to develop and scale solutions that manage plastic waste and promote post-use solutions of plastic. |
Circulate Capital | Founding investor in effort to incubate and finance companies and infrastructure that prevent waste in oceans. |
American Institute for Packaging and the Environment (AMERIPEN) |
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American Center for Life Cycle Assessment (ACLCA) |
American Chemistry Council (ACC) |
American Coatings Association |
American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers |
American Petroleum Institute |
Business Roundtable |
Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS) |
European Chemistry Industry Council (CEFIC) |
Corporate Eco Forum |
Environmental Defense Fund |
Flexible Packaging Association |
Global Silicones Council (GSC) |
International Council on Chemical Associations (ICCA) |
Louisiana Chemical Association |
National Association of Manufacturers |
Plastics Europe |
Texas Chemical Council |
The Nature Conservancy |
US Chamber of Commerce |
World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) |
World Economic Forum (WEF) |
Subsidized by | Program Title | Agency Contribution* ($MM) |
---|---|---|
Canadian National | Innovative Transparent Barrier Multi-Layer Sheets from Starch for Food Packaging | 0.25 |
Dutch National | BioXtreme - Anaerobic Wastewater Treatment Under Extreme Conditions | 0.34 |
Dutch National | TKI HZ-UGent Wetland Project | 0.06 |
Dutch National | Constructed Wetland - Pilot Research Wetland - Mild Desalination | 0.86 |
Dutch National | Development of Heat Storage for Industrial Steam | 0.49 |
Dutch National | Compact Modular Thermo Acoustic Heat Pump | 0.92 |
Dutch National | Steel to Chemicals - On the Road to Large-Scale CO2 Emission Reduction in a Circular Economy | 5.33 |
Dutch National | Valorization of Post-Consumer Low Density Polyethylene into Higher-End Circular Packaging Material | 0.55 |
Dutch National | Heat-Integrated Distillation Enabling Innovative Ethylene Crackers | 0.97 |
Dutch National | Electrons to Close the Carbon Cycle | 1.13 |
Dutch National | Mechanical Steam Recompression | 2.29 |
Dutch National | Energy-Efficient Affinity-Driven Molecular Separation | 0.66 |
Dutch National | Steam and Condensate Quality Water Process Technology | 1.10 |
Dutch National | Debottlenecking of Chromatographic Separations | 0.94 |
Dutch National | Water Nexus - Securing Water Supply in Delta and Floodplain Areas Worldwide | 7.50 |
European Union | Photoelectrocatalytic Device for Sun-Driven CO2 Conversion into Green Chemicals | 7.46 |
European Union | Innovative Approaches Towards Prevention, Removal and Reuse of Marine Plastic Litter | 6.76 |
European Union | Advancing Sustainability of Process Industries Through Digital and Circular Water Use Innovations | 12.16 |
European Union | Circular Plastics Network for Training | 4.37 |
European Union | Plastic Waste to Syngas to Chemicals | 1.44 |
European Union | Training of a New Generation of Researchers in Innovative Electrochemical Oxidation Processes for the Removal and Analysis of Micro-Pollutants in Water Streams | 4.55 |
European Union | Planar Optical Micro-Tracking for High-Efficiency Solar Panels | 1.44 |
European Union | Alternative Freshwater Resources for Saline Coastal Areas | 2.49 |
European Union | Impact of Air Pollutants on Cutaneous Responses in Both Healthy and Compromised Skin Barrier, and Innovative Solutions to Protect Skin Against Urban Pollution | 0.91 |
European Union | Lignin Oxidation Technology for Versatile Lignin Dispersants | 4.77 |
European Union | Development and Demonstration of Low-Carbon Technologies to Transform CO2 and CO Streams from the Steel Industry into New Value Chains | 7.00 |
European Union | Integrated Model Guided Process Optimization of Steam Cracking Furnaces | 7.57 |
European Union | Compressed Natural Gas Transport System | 13.20 |
European Union | Advanced Composite Material Selection Platform with a Seamless Integration of Material Models and Multidisciplinary Design Framework | 4.26 |
European Union | Formulations & Computational Engineering | 4.32 |
European Union | Compact Retrofit Advanced Thermal Energy Storage | 6.50 |
UK National | Polyurethane Foam as a Synthetic Growth Media for Hydroponic Horticulture | 0.16 |
US-DOD | Open Architecture Testbed Framework Development | 0.15 |
US-DOD | Digital Twins for Process Manufacturing | 0.90 |
US-DOE | Responsible Innovation for Highly Recyclable Plastics | 2.00 |
US-DOE | Hydrocarbon Gas Foam Enhanced Oil Recovery and Gas Conformance Control in Bakken Formations | 8.00 |
US-DOE | Predictive Modeling of Polyurethane Foam Processes to Optimize Thermal Performance and Reduce Waste | 0.30 |
US-DOE | Efficient Chemicals Production via Chemical Looping | 0.87 |
US-DOE | Optimization Modeling for Advanced Syngas to Olefin Reactive Systems | 0.48 |
US-DOE | An Experimentally Verified Physical Properties Database for Absorbent Selection | 0.15 |
US-DOE | Multiscale Modeling Infrastructure | 1.90 |
US-DOE | Energy-Efficient Separation of Olefins and Paraffins Through a Membrane | 0.66 |
US-DOE | Dynamic Intensification of the Operation of Dividing Wall Column | 0.82 |
US-DOE | Imaging Model Ziegler Natta Catalysts with Single-Atom Sensitivity | 0.27 |
US-DOE | Ambient Pressure X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy for in Situ Studies of Heterogeneous Catalysts | 0.26 |
US-NSF | Flow-Driven Segregation at the Particle Level | 0.40 |
US-NSF | Industry/University Compact High-Performance Cooling Technologies Research Consortium | 0.42 |
US-NSF | Advancing Thermal Field-Flow Fractionation for Complex Polymers and Colloids | 0.40 |
US-NSF | Population Balance Modeling - Fundamental Closures and Experimental Validation | 0.30 |
US-NSF | Improved Association-Based Models for Separations in the Bioeconomy | 0.37 |
*The dollar figure listed is the value of the direct government support for the total program. Several programs have multiple participants receiving assistance. These programs were active in 2020; however, many are multiyear.