More than a decade ago, Dow and The Nature Conservancy came together to address a simple but important question: How can businesses better value nature? Since then, our pioneering collaboration has resulted in Dow’s 2025 Valuing Nature Goal and the development of tools and processes that are helping Dow and other organizations systematically factor nature and its value into business decisions.
In 2020, Dow and The Nature Conservancy again came together to ask an important question: What’s next? How do we continue to evolve our work beyond the 2025 nature goal? Together, we started to look at biodiversity and how it is a critical part of valuing nature. Now, using some of the same proven approaches that advanced our work in valuing nature, we are developing scientifically credible tools and strategies for assessing biodiversity and investing in projects that help restore and conserve critical watersheds. Looking at priority areas for Dow such as water, carbon and biodiversity, we identified the U.S. Gulf Coast and the Mississippi River watershed as critical to our efforts, and we are working with The Nature Conservancy on specific projects in this region, such as the Loch Leven Restoration Project in Louisiana.
Recently, we talked to Jennifer Molnar, managing director and lead scientist for The Nature Conservancy’s Center for Sustainability Science, for her thoughts on how businesses can better manage and account for biodiversity. We also talked to two scientists – Scott Lemmons, director of Freshwater Programs, Mississippi, The Nature Conservancy, and Bryan Piazza, director of Freshwater & Marine Science, Louisiana, The Nature Conservancy – for their “boots-on-the-ground” perspectives.
