WASHINGTON DC, 22 March, 2016 — Today, on World Water Day, The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW) signed a collaboration agreement with the 2030 Water Resources Group (2030 WRG) to support its activities at the global and national levels. The partnership will be centered on multi-stakeholder collaboration between public, private and civil society actors in the area of sustainable water resources management.

The collaboration supports Dow’s 2025 Sustainability Goals, the Company’s commitment to drive unprecedented collaborations to develop a societal blueprint that will help facilitate the transition to a more sustainable planet and society. Elements of Dow’s 2025 Sustainability goals related to water include accounting for the business value of using fresh water in its operations, as well as reducing the intensity of fresh water intake at its key sites by 20%.

Dow Chairman and CEO Andrew N. Liveris, said, “Business has an indispensable role to play in driving human progress, but it cannot work alone. Only by leveraging our breadth and depth of scientific solutions at their intersection with government and civil society can we solve global challenges like the sustainable use of water.”

With increasing demands placed on limited freshwater resources, the world must move from a linear economy model of “take, make and dispose” of raw materials including water, to a circular approach in which there is reduced demand for water, greater reuse of impaired water, and reclamation of water from new sources.  As part of Dow’s 2025 Sustainability Goals, the Company is committed to advancing a circular economy by delivering solutions to help close the resource loops in key markets.  Water reuse as it applies to a circular economy creates a world where water is a well-managed resource, sustained by advances in science and technology.

Dow’s work aligns with 2030 WRG’s goals, especially when it comes to further developments in water treatment technology, wastewater recycling and agricultural water efficiency.

Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, Chair of the 2030 WRG Governing Council and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Nestlé remarked: “Dow strongly believes in enhancing its sustainability profile by offering cutting-edge solutions that will contribute to meeting a number of global challenges. These range from climate change impacts to water scarcity constraints and food production, while at the same time ensuring profitable and sound business in the long run. As the world’s population continues to increase and new economies emerge, society requires novel solutions to meet its most basic needs, including water, energy and food. Dow is a leader in developing technologies to address these challenges in meaningful ways.”

Dow’s Water & Process Solutions business unit has the industry’s broadest portfolio of liquid purification and separation technologies that enable customers in a variety of industries to more effectively and efficiently produce clean water.  These solutions process about 15 million gallons of water every minute, or more than 3 gallons a day for every man, woman and child in the world.  Dow also applies its own solutions to several of its key manufacturing sites including sites in Terneuzen, the Netherlands, and Freeport, Texas, USA.

About Dow

Dow (NYSE: DOW) combines the power of science and technology to passionately innovate what is essential to human progress. The Company is driving innovations that extract value from material, polymer, chemical and biological science to help address many of the world’s most challenging problems such as the need for clean water, clean energy generation and conservation, and increasing agricultural productivity. Dow’s integrated, market-driven, industry-leading portfolio of specialty chemical, advanced materials, agrosciences and plastics businesses delivers a broad range of technology-based products and solutions to customers in approximately 180 countries and in high-growth sectors such as packaging, electronics, water, coatings and agriculture. In 2015, Dow had annual sales of nearly $49 billion and employed approximately 49,500 people worldwide. The Company’s more than 6,000 product families are manufactured at 179 sites in 35 countries across the globe. References to “Dow” or the “Company” mean The Dow Chemical Company and its consolidated subsidiaries unless otherwise expressly noted. More information about Dow can be found at www.dow.com.

About the 2030 Water Resources Group

The 2030 Water Resources Group is a unique public-private-civil society collaboration. The Group facilitates open, trust-based dialogue processes to drive action on water resources reform in water stressed countries in developing economies. The ultimate aim of such reforms and actions is to close the gap between water demand and supply by the year 2030. The 2030 WRG emerged in 2009 through a collaboration between the IFC, the World Economic Forum, multilateral and bilateral agencies (Swiss and Swedish Development Cooperation), private sector companies (Nestlé, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, SABMiller), and other organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund.
More information: www.2030wrg.org / www.twitter.com/2030WRG #2030WRG

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Press contacts:

Alida Pham, 2030 Water Resources Group, Global Communications Lead

Email: apham4@ifc.org, direct: +1 202 473 3272, mobile: +1 202 603 2535

Linda Lim, Dow Water & Process Solutions, Global Business Communications Lead

Email: llim2@dow.com, direct: +1 952 897 4309, mobile: +1 989 948 9126