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Dow’s Water Resilience Strategy
Dow’s operations depend on reliable water resources but escalating climate and socio-economic pressures are intensifying global water scarcity.
While Dow has a strong legacy of water stewardship, returning over 96% of withdrawn water sustainably, growing demand and stressed water basins at more than 40 Dow sites require a more resilient approach.
To ensure business continuity and supply chain security, Dow’s methodology advances beyond conservation – focusing on holistic water resilience to proactively manage risks and support sustainable growth.
Dow’s water and nature strategy
Dow’s holistic, next-generation water and nature strategy goes beyond our own operations. It addresses our water and land dynamics, recommitting to world-class water stewardship and asset performance.
Framework
Collaborating to secure water resources and healthy ecosystems globally.
We consider the surrounding water basins, building a robust model including the water dynamics that support our sites’ and communities’ needs, regulatory and legal conditions, and social impacts of water availability and quality.
Collaborative action with other innovative, like-minded partners drives collective effort to secure water resources and healthy ecosystems for all who depend on them.
Process
Guiding sites to implement water resilience and inform strategy.
The Water Resilience framework is grounded in a Site Water Plan process and tools.
These are designed to equip and guide sites to drive water resilience actions and own long-term water stewardship.
Each site completes a Site Water Plan that highlights priority actions the site will take and identifies opportunities and issues for the company to address.
Basin studies for the top water-dependent sites provide additional expertise and stakeholder participation to advance larger-scale, longer-term collaborative actions.
All the resulting data, site water plan outcomes, and basin system models can be used to inform business and enterprise strategy.
Tools
Assessing site water resilience and managing data for transparency.
Water Resilience Evaluation: A simple evaluation system delivers a general resilience assessment of the site and the nearby water basin. It was designed to drive understanding of the site’s water footprint, ground strategic prioritization, reveal important trends and over time, build knowledge and expertise in site water management. Evaluation questions provide an overview across the four water risk categories (e.g., Water Supply and Quality) and scores show resilience risks and opportunities. These evaluation scores form the foundation of Dow’s Water Resilience Index which provides a broader view of water-related risks and opportunities across our global operations. This index helps benchmark progress, identify priority areas, and guide strategic actions to strengthen water resilience.
Site Water Workbook: This evergreen tool houses site data and information that the sites own and use to support resilience activity. The consistent format promotes transparency at the site level and for the business across their envelope. Tabs in the workbook provide user guidelines, supporting information for the site and data collection topics sectioned according to the four water-related risk categories.
Application
Acting and collaborating to sustain water resilience enterprise-wide.
All sites will take action to improve and sustain water resilience. These actions will be implemented by the site and indirectly through collaboration with their neighbors. Over time, every site will build and maintain a consistent hub of experience, knowledge and stakeholder relationships to steward water well at the site and within the basin.
The value of this approach to water resilience shows up when we combine site stewardship, data and trends across the business and enterprise. A full view of water resilience can be leveraged to optimize risk and opportunity across the envelope by the business and across Dow’s operations. Rather than shaping Dow’s growth strategy through a single water intensity factor, we will understand the web of impacts in a practical, pragmatic way that enables us to clearly evaluate future investments, innovation opportunities and partnerships.
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