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    Solidarity through volunteering

    A Dow volunteer works with a student in a classroom.

    Dec 05, 2022

    |

    Justin Land

    Today, 52% of our employees volunteer.

    Today, on International Volunteer Day (IVD), we celebrate Team Dow volunteers, our partners and our communities.

    As we reflect on 2022, our 125th anniversary, we embrace this year’s IVD theme of solidarity through volunteering. Solidarity means coming together through common interests and shared responsibilities to embrace interdependence and achieve a common purpose.

    When Herbert H. Dow founded our Company in 1897 in Midland, Michigan, he and his wife, Grace A. Dow, started to imagine how they could grow a thriving community. They helped create a community center, served as volunteers with several community organizations and inaugurated garden contests to help beautify the city. H.H. Dow also served on the local education board.

    They created solidarity for Midland to become a great place to live, work and play, and planted the seed of volunteerism and giving back that has grown for 125 years and continues to make an impact through our 35,000 employees in the 31 countries where we operate today.

    Uniting common interests and shared responsibilities through purpose-driven programming

    Today, 52% of our employees volunteer. We fuel our purpose-driven programs like 125th-anniversary global Serve-a-thon, STEM volunteering, #PullingOurWeight, ALL IN ERG Fund, MLK Day of Service and our Business Impact Fund through our paid time-off Volunteer and Employee Resource Group (ERG) Participation policy.

    In May, to connect Team Dow and our communities, more than 3,500 volunteers committed nearly 9,000 hours to support community partners across more than 150 projects in 24 countries worldwide as part of our first-ever global volunteer Serve-a-thon. Opportunities took place virtually, in person and at EMERGE, Dow’s all-Employee Resource Group (ERG) conference.
    Team Dow is developing tomorrow’s innovators, from in-classroom activities to mentoring opportunities, sharing experiences that can help inspire a future STEM professional. For example, we directly support and mentor approximately 2,000 students annually in partnership with FIRST Robotics.
    The fifth year of #PullingOurWeight, our global cleanup effort to address plastic pollution, continues to build momentum and awareness with employees, communities, customers and key stakeholders as we emphasize the role we each have in responsible waste management. So far this year, the program has seen 9,835 participants come together through 147 community cleanups and remove more than 200,000 pounds of waste from the environment.
    As part of Dow ACTs, our Company's framework to address systemic racism and inequality – MLK Day is a paid U.S. holiday. Promoting equity and inclusivity, more than 1,000 colleagues across 16 countries participated in learning and volunteer activities to honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
    Team Dow is building inclusive communities through the ALL IN ERG Fund, which harnesses our ten employee resource groups' passion, perspective and expertise (ERGs). Since the Fund launched in 2019, more than 1,000 volunteers representing our ERGs have worked with local organizations to champion inclusion, diversity and equity projects in our communities.
    Team Dow is advancing sustainable solutions through the Business Impact Fund. The Fund brings together employees, nonprofit organizations, entrepreneurs and Dow customers to collaborate on projects that tackle society’s most significant sustainability challenges.

    Embracing interdependence toward a common purpose when our communities need us most

    We also recognize that we need to be there for each other when disaster, crisis and conflict affect our communities.

    Supporting the resiliency of communities following a disaster, our partnership with Team Rubicon enables our Veteran Employee Resource Group: VetNet, paid time off to volunteer with this veteran-led nonprofit. This year, our employees deployed to support relief efforts for Hurricane Ian in Florida and flooding in Kentucky and West Virginia.
    Earlier this year, in response Russian government’s invasion of Ukraine and the refugee crisis in Europe, Team Dow stepped up to meet humanitarian needs. Employees supported multiple volunteer projects across European locations, including the Women’s Rights Center in Poland, helping women and children who fled Ukraine. This support included inviting these women and children to a Family Day with Dow, which featured interactive science experiments. Employees also volunteered to do a cycling challenge to support children in Ukraine.

    We also know that recovery takes time, and we are there with our partners for the long term. Partnerships like the one with SBP supported John Rogers and many others in rebuilding their homes after Hurricane Harvey. Dow employees could also help John in Houston, Texas, during the EMERGE conference in-person volunteer Serve-a-thon events that allowed community members like him to imagine a brighter future.

    Imagine Better

    As we wrap up our anniversary this month, we reflect on 125 years of ingenuity and innovation, partnerships and problem-solving, we celebrate H.H. Dow’s legacy and the solidarity our volunteers bring to our communities, which contributes to a positive employee experience and advances our Company’s ambition.

    Join us. Become a volunteer.

    #TogetherActNow to Imagine Better for our future.

     

    Justin Land, Global Citizenship Manager