2025 Sustainability Goal:
Collaborating for Blueprints

We will lead in developing societal blueprints that integrate public policy solutions, science and technology, and value chain innovation to facilitate the transition to a sustainable planet and society.

Leading the Blueprint

A Sustainable Future for All
Can you imagine a future where businesses, governments, and society work together to advance solutions that preserve our planet and ensure a sustainable future for all?

We Can
But we know that business as usual cannot achieve this future. Our interconnected world requires a collaborative approach to sustainability, combining meaningful actions at local and global levels. Collaborations in new and meaningful ways are the path forward to a sustainable planet.

From Footprint to Handprint to Blueprint
Dow’s sustainability journey has evolved from focusing on operational efficiency (Footprint), to product solutions to world challenges (Handprint), to recognizing that only through collaboration can we join others to accelerate the progress toward a sustainable planet (Blueprint).

Blueprints for a Sustainable Planet
Dow’s blueprints for a sustainable planet are aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and are a collection of best practices and effective collaborations addressing the most pressing global challenges today. Currently, we are working on blueprints in water, low carbon economy, workforce development and plastic packaging that reflect our experiences and collaborations to address these challenges. There is much to learn and much to share.

Join Us
We know there are others who share this blueprint vision. We want to join existing conversations and convene new ones on how we as companies and organizations can accelerate sustainable practices by collaborating on blueprints for a sustainable planet.

Milestones

Our key performance indicator is the sum of dialogues and collaborations.

  • Dow will engage in 100 significant dialogues and establish 10 new connections with businesses, nonprofit organizations, government and academia to develop and implement a societal blueprint that facilitates the transition to a sustainable planet and society.
  • Dow will publish an initial blueprint by year end 2017 and will update the blueprint throughout the goal time frame, considering world progress toward sustainability and emerging challenges.
  • Dow will establish a Sustainability Advocacy Platform by 2016 as a main theme within Dow’s overall public policy effort to advocate for Dow as a breakthrough solutions provider in the areas of food, water, energy and environment.
  • Dow will establish a “Sustainability Institute” by 2020 composed of internal and external experts to complement the platform as a successful and effective implementer of practical solutions and driver of societal transformation.
  • Dow will lead through performance and thought leadership to promote energy and greenhouse gas emissions performance policies, best practices and standards, and will participate in clean energy development and use.

Recent Successes

As part of this Goal, we’re engaging in courageous collaborations that leverage Dow expertise to inform projects in the public and private sectors. Here are a few examples of our work in this area so far:

  • The City of Terneuzen is a major seaport and freshwater-scarce coastal area in the southwestern Netherlands where competing water demands across agriculture, industry and residences makes water management difficult. To help manage freshwater use and reuse, Dow partnered with the Water Board Scheldestromen, the City of Terneuzen and water company Evides to create a public-private partnership to develop an innovative wastewater recycling program. In addition to lowering its reliance on scarce freshwater in the region and decreasing the need to remotely source freshwater, through this partnership Dow Terneuzen has reduced its energy use by 95 percent as a result of the partnership -the equivalent of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 60,000 tons each year. Read More
  • The Dow-TNC Collaboration is an innovative collaboration between The Dow Chemical Company and The Nature Conservancy to incorporate the value of ecosystem services into business decision making. Established in 2011, the six-year collaboration combines the expertise of Dow, one of the world’s largest chemical manufacturers, and TNC, the foremost global land and water conservation organization, to develop tools and models that incorporate the value of resources provided by nature into business decisions.
  • Through a collaborative effort to explore an alternative for plastic waste, Dow partnered with the Flexible Packaging Association, Republic Services, Agilyx, Reynolds Consumer Products and the city of Citrus Heights, California, to establish the Energy Bag Pilot Program, which aimed to divert non-recycled plastics from landfills and optimize their resource efficiency across the product lifecycle.
  • The Dow Sustainability Fellows Programat the University of Michigan supports full-time graduate students and postdoctoral scholars at the university who are committed to working across disciplines to find actionable and meaningful sustainability solutions on local-to-global scales. The program aspires to prepare future interdisciplinary sustainability leaders to make a positive difference in organizations worldwide. Read More