Dow (NYSE: DOW) has published its 2023 Intersections Report, showcasing the company’s strides towards becoming the most innovative, customer-centric, inclusive, and sustainable materials science company globally. The report underscores Dow’s environmental, social, and governance commitments, aimed at delivering long-term value and leading performance through innovation and strategic collaborations to support a more sustainable future.
The report highlights Dow’s focus on four key areas crucial to its business and stakeholders: protecting the climate, advancing a circular economy and safer materials, cultivating a thriving team and community, and driving accountability and best-in-class performance.
Jim Fitterling, Dow’s chair and CEO, emphasized the report’s significance, stating, “This year’s report demonstrates how Team Dow is putting our ambition into action and collaborating to create innovative, sustainable solutions through our materials science. Sustainability and inclusion are key drivers of our growth and are integral to how we create value for our customers, communities, and shareholders. In 2023, we continued to make progress toward our targets while driving positive change for people and the planet.”
Key accomplishments highlighted in the 2023 report, based on full-year 2023 data, include:
Protecting the climate:
- Approved the final investment decision to construct the world’s first net-zero Scope 1 and 2 emissions integrated ethylene cracker and derivatives facility in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, Canada, which will decarbonize 20% of Dow’s global ethylene capacity.
- Sourced over 50% of Dow’s purchased electricity, equivalent to more than 1,000 megawatts (MW), from renewables, surpassing the Company’s 2025 target of 750 MW.
- Developed Dow’s Water & Nature strategy to expand its Protect the Climate targets, supporting resiliency for Dow sites and surrounding natural ecosystems.
Advancing a circular economy and safer materials:
- Aligned over 89% of Dow’s R&D innovation pipeline to focus areas of climate protection, circular economy, and safer materials.
- Collaborated with customers to create more circular, high-performing solutions, including SURLYN™ REN and SURLYN™ CIR Ionomers using circular and bio-based feedstocks for high-quality cosmetic packaging.
- Introduced 12 new grades of REVOLOOP™ Recycled Plastics Resins, Dow’s global line of resins made with up to 70% mechanically recycled post-consumer plastics waste.
Cultivating a thriving team and community:
- Increased best-in-class employee resource group participation by four percentage points from 2022, with 60.8% participation from Dow employees.
- Recognized as one of the 25 World’s Best Workplaces™ by Great Place To Work® and FORTUNE.
- Partnered with 640 nonprofits, educational institutions, and other community organizations to accelerate social change and create a more sustainable and equitable future.
Driving accountability and best-in-class performance:
- Enhanced disclosures for Board of Director qualifications, enterprise risk management, and leadership succession planning.
- Refreshed the Dow Code of Conduct in alignment with industry best practices.
- Continued to surpass industry peers in the percentage of Board members and executive leadership who are U.S. ethnic minorities.
The 2023 report builds on Dow’s longstanding commitment to transparency and accountability to stakeholders, with advancements in several areas, including the launch of a comprehensive Water & Nature strategy and enhanced disclosures in line with Green Bond principles and specific investments.
The environmental, social, and governance disclosures in the 2023 report adhere to five leading standards and frameworks, including the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol, the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), and the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics. Dow engaged Deloitte & Touche, LLP to perform a review engagement and obtain limited assurance on management’s assertion related to disclosures presented in accordance with the 2021 GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards as of, and for the year ended, December 31, 2023, and related to Scopes 1, 2, and 3 emissions presented in accordance with the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standards under its Corporate Standards for the year ended December 31, 2023.
