Sustainability Report
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2013 Annual Sustainability Report 2013 Sustain abilit y to World Challenges Bre akt hrough FILMTEC™ ECO Reverse Osmosis Elements A Dow Breakthrough Reverse Osmosis Technology For One Of The World’s Greatest Challenges: Water Scarcity 2 | The Dow Chemical Company Dow Names Breakthrough to Global Water Challenge Water covers two-thirds of the earth’s surface, yet fresh water is a scarce and limited resource. With just one planet and a growing population, Dow is committed to minimizing its own footprint and to delivering solutions that help customers and society do the same. As part of the Company’s 2015 Sustainability Goals, Dow has set targets to introduce three “breakthroughs to world challenges.” Global water demand is expected to continue to grow exponentially by 2030, greatly outpacing supply. While consumers might experience limitations to household water consumption as a result of drought conditions, they may have less visibility to significant opportunities for water efficiency in the production of the goods and services they use every day. For example, it takes 2,867 gallons of water to make just one pair of jeans, or 39,090 gallons of water to manufacture a new car. With large-scale, positive sustainability impact, the Company named DOW FILMTEC™ ECO Reverse Osmosis (RO) Elements as its second breakthrough technology. Fighting global water scarcity by helping to deliver 40 percent better purification with 30 percent less energy, this innovative solution has the potential to impact millions of lives by revolutionizing water treatment. “As this new Dow technology is fully adopted, we anticipate it will deliver trillions of metric tons of clean water, billions of kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy savings, and reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by more than a million metric tons in its first 10 years of use alone,” said Neil Hawkins, corporate vice president of Sustainability at Dow. “This innovation will help deliver a more sustainable water supply to the world, addressing global water scarcity in a very tangible way.” Dow is uniquely positioned to help solve this global challenge, as its solutions are already processing more than 15 million gallons of water per minute around the world. With this market understanding, Dow scientists developed a breakthrough polymer chemistry that surpasses the last three decades of incremental change in RO technology and represents some of the most advanced water purification science available today. 2013 Annual Sustainability Report | 3 Combining the power of science and technology to passionately innovate what is essential to human progress. The Dow Chemical Company 2013 Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Report Including: UN Global Compact – Communication on Progress 4Except | The as Dow otherwise Chemical indicated Company by the context, the terms “Company” or “Dow” as used herein mean The Dow Chemical Company and its consolidated subsidiaries. Dow attains an externally verified comprehensive application level Dow is fully committed to transparency and accountability in achieving its Sustainability Goals. Transparent, in-depth reporting assures that the public, as well as the entire Dow enterprise, is aware of the Company’s goals and priorities. This is one of the reasons this report has been prepared in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G4 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines. The report corresponds to the “Comprehensive” level in the G4 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines, which means that this report covers all the General Standard Disclosures of the G4 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines and all the Sustainability Aspects we have identified as material to the Company. For this report, a “Materiality Matters” check was conducted by GRI. This check confirms that, in the Company’s opinion, the most critical disclosures in the report based on the GRI G4 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines are correctly located at both the GRI Content Index as well as in the final report. Finding what is of interest to you. About Our Cover: Following this page is a high-level table of contents The water pictured that outlines the color-coded organizational structure on the cover of this of the report. year’s report is to recognize Dow’s second Summary of 2013: This eight-page summary is a announced product convenient way to learn more about Dow and its in our Breakthroughs commitment to sustainability. Download this PDF for a to World Challenges quick read on what happened at the Company in 2013. 2015 Sustainability Please consider the environment and only print the pages Goal: FILMTEC™ ECO that you will need offline. RO Elements from Dow Water & Process Detailed GRI Index: At the end of this report is a detailed Solutions. index in GRI G4 nomenclature with hyperlinks by item that Read more here. will help you navigate to your topic of interest. Embedded Links: Relevant detail about various topics can be found using links throughout the report. 2013 Annual Sustainability Report | 5 Introduction Table of Conten ts Finding what is of interest to you: Quickly navigate through the report using the links in the table of contents. Introduction .....................................................................................................7 Q and A for More Comprehensive Understanding .............................. 8 Sustainability Overview 2013 ..................................................................10 Strategy and Profile of The Dow Chemical Company ...................22 Strategy and Analysis ............................................................................23 Oraganizational Profile .........................................................................26 Stakeholder Engagement ................................................................... 38 The Economic Impact of Sustainability....... .......................................57 Protecting our Planet ................................................................................64 A Great Place to Work .............................................................................. 96 Human Rights ............................................................................................114 Society ........................................................................................................120 Product Stewardship .............................................................................134 Index .............................................................................................................141 6 | The Dow Chemical Company I n t r o d u c ti on For the eleventh year, The Dow Chemical Company is providing a Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Report. This document follows the GRI G4 framework, making information available on a range of Environmental, Social, and Economic topics. This document serves as Dow’s UN Global Compact Communication on Progress for 2013. Other Company reporting that may be of interest to readers is available on www.dow.com as follows: • 2012 Databook under Investors, Financial Information • 2013 Dow Annual Report under Investors, Financial Information • Code of Business Conduct under Investors, Corporate Governance • Dow’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2013 (Dow 2013 10-K) under Investor, Financial Information, SEC Filings • 2014 Proxy Statement under Investors, Financial Information • Public Reports from Around the World • Our Company, Overview • Quarterly Updates found under Company, Sustainability, Reporting Center 2013 Annual Sustainability Report | 7 Introduction Q an d A 8 | The Dow Chemical Company Q and A for More Comprehensive Understanding What is the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)? How to browse this document: GRI is an organization that has pioneered the standardization The electronic version of this report is enabled with links of sustainability reporting through the creation of the GRI for easy browsing. Browse by index, section or materiality. framework. Key principles in its approach include: balance, Navigation bars are included on each page allowing you to comparability, materiality, accuracy, timeliness, clarity and jump to any section. Look for the following icon to browse reliability. For more information, visit GRI’s website or study by materiality: the GRI index of topics at the end of this document. How does Dow approach sustainability reporting? High Very High Product Safety Water Chemical Security High Very Leadership The transparent and comprehensive use of the GRI framework Sustainable Local Protection Chemistry of Human Health & the Environment creates accountability for the Company to report and improve Energy Community Sustainable reporting on the topics stakeholders may find important. We Sustainable Success Supply Chain Agriculture Biodiversity and intend to serve broad stakeholder needs efficiently by creating Ecosystem Services Breakthroughs Climate Change Trade Policy High a central repository for all relevant topics. Progress on our 2015 to World Challenges* Sustainability Goals is also consistently communicated in our Importance to Stakeholders Assessments and Decisions Assessments and Stakeholders to Importance quarterly updates published on www.dow.com. Significance of Impacts What are Dow’s 2015 Sustainability Goals? A 2013 year-end summary for each of our 10-year What is the United Nations (UN) Communication Sustainability Goals is found in the Summary of 2013 PDF. on Progress (COP)? It is available as a separate PDF and also found on pages We use the annual Sustainability