Advancing Water Stewardship and Resilience
Originally published in Dow's 2022 INtersections Progress Report
As one of the largest materials science companies in the world, Dow depends on a steady supply of fresh water to create the products that are essential for everyday life and human progress. We strive to use our technology, expertise and partnerships to help conserve and promote regenerative water use, protect watersheds and create a future where clean water is abundant and available to all.
OUR APPROACH
To date, we have focused our efforts on reducing freshwater intake intensity by 20% by 2025 at six key water-stressed sites. 2022 was a challenging year, with droughts occurring at three of our key water-stressed sites – Terneuzen, the Netherlands, and Freeport and Seadrift, both in Texas. Droughts not only impact water availability but also water quality, which in turn increases water demand. See GRI 3-3 Management approach – Water Stewardship for more information. We continue to engage with customers, communities and other stakeholders to improve water quality and access in our key watersheds. In 2023, we are broadening our water stewardship ambition and actions to include our supply chain and product innovation:
- Operations Implementing most-effective technology beyond compliance
- Supply Chain Working across the supply chain to reduce water used in key watersheds
- Innovation Incorporating water considerations into R&D portfolio and investing in key technology research
2022 Actions
- Implementing projects to increase water circularity and improve water quality. Through the AquaSpice project, we are partnering to reduce our freshwater intake intensity at two water-stressed sites – Böhlen, Germany, and Terneuzen, the Netherlands – by enhancing the recycle of various process water streams and using smart monitoring on raw water, discharge and recycle streams to improve water management.
- Collaborating with customers to drive innovation and implement water-saving technologies. In 2022, we received an R&D 100 Award and Edison Award for our Multi-Functional Sorbent Technology (MUST) in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory. MUST is a suite of sorbents that offers a practical, affordable and more sustainable approach to removing heavy-metal contaminants from waterways and manufacturing processes.
- Developing key partnerships to address community freshwater needs. We recently launched a new partnership with Water.org to help provide lasting access to reliable, safe water and sanitation through affordable financing in Mexico. Our funding also will support areas facing high water scarcity with solutions such as rainwater harvesting.
- Investing in projects that reduce our financial risk tied to water. We have initiated a project to explore expanding our reservoir capacity, servicing our largest manufacturing site in Freeport, Texas. This site sits along the banks of the Brazos River, a seasonally stressed watershed. The project’s capability for storage and rainwater capture would increase the reliable water supply of the Brazos River by approximately 80,000 acre-feet per year, or roughly 7%, and the reliable surface water supply of the state of Texas by 1.2%. The project is intended to create positive environmental and social impacts by capturing water in times of excess and by enabling improved water supply reliability for eight municipalities and the populations they serve.
Collaborating to Conserve the World’s Freshwater Resources
As a founding member of the Water Resilience Coalition (WRC) under the U.N. Global Compact, Dow is working collaboratively with other corporations and organizations such as the World Resources Institute, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and Water.org to enhance water stewardship management at the watershed level. By sharing knowledge and resources, coalition members seek to achieve greater impact in building the resilience of water-stressed basins around the world – prioritizing those that pose the greatest risk to local economies, industry and longterm economic prosperity. Through the WRC, Dow has pledged to accomplish three overarching commitments by 2050:
- Net-positive water impact. Deliver measurable net-positive impact in waterstressed basins, focusing on the availability, quality and accessibility of freshwater resources. Net-positive water impact is defined as contributing more to basin health than what is taken from it.
- Water-resilient value chain. Develop, implement and enable water resilience practices across 100% of the company’s global value chain.
- Global leadership. Raise the ambition of water resilience through public and corporate outreach, as well as inspire other industry leaders to join the WRC. Currently, 2.2 billion people around the world are living in water-stressed areas, and the same is expected to be true of more than half the world’s population by 2050 if no action is taken.
“As the climate continues to change, the impacts on our shared freshwater resources are far-reaching,” said Dow Chair and CEO Jim Fitterling. “Businesses like Dow depend on having abundant fresh water to ensure the continued safe operation of our manufacturing facilities worldwide. We have both the responsibility and opportunity to collaborate with other sectors of society on solutions, combining our resources and efforts to ensure there are sustainable and resilient freshwater resources for all.”
