Be a leader in sustainable development

At the multinational Dow Chemical Company, the word green is said a lot, more environmentally friendly, but more sustainable. What is Sustainability for Dow? Dr. Neil C. Hawkins said: Its core is to bring value to customers and society on the one hand, and at the same time to protect the earth's resources and environment for future generations.

Hawkins is Dow's Vice President of Sustainability. In this global role, he is responsible for advancing Dow's sustainability efforts, including achieving Dow's landmark 2015 Sustainability Goals.

Dow uses a rotating flywheel to clearly express the core content of the "2015 Sustainable Development Goals": the center of the flywheel is sustainable chemistry, which is the key to Dow's sustainable development, and closely surrounding it is a A circular circle, starting from innovation, to life cycle, to cooperation, and back to innovation. Seven goals form the outer circle, including energy efficiency and conservation goals, tackling climate change, addressing the world's challenges, protecting human health and the environment, contributing to community success, being a leader in product safety, and setting the standard for sustainable development.

Is it feasible to include in a company's goals the mission of tackling climate change and addressing the world's challenges? Perhaps, as Hawkins said, it takes holistic thinking and full life cycle assessment to achieve such sustainable development goals. All of Dow's efforts are not only in response to pressure from public policy, nor are they limited to meeting the rigid standards of local governments' green environmental protection goals. Dow is exercising leadership in its areas of expertise, guiding the setting of industry standards, in order to achieve win-win results for itself and the entire industry with the community and customers, and to coexist in a friendly manner with the environment. And all of this, Hawkins said humbly, will be achieved through shared learning.

With 7 years to go until the paper is finalized, Dow's continued efforts have shown remarkable results. Improvements implemented to comply with the SDGs have saved the company more than $5 billion, reduced solid waste by 1.6 billion pounds, reduced water use by 183 billion pounds, saved 900 trillion British thermal units of energy, and reduced personal safety and health incidents 84 %.

Sustainability becomes everyone's responsibility

What does sustainability mean to Dow?

At Dow, sustainability is a strategic driver around which all operations are built. At Dow, all sustainability goals apply to every business unit, and all business units are closely tracked and executed, which is our commitment to sustainability as a global company.

But on the other hand, not every business sector has the same impact and level of business development goals. For example, our hydrocarbon feedstock and energy sector has a much greater impact on climate change than other sectors. .

As another example, our Building Solutions division generates strategies for this division based on the company's overall sustainability goals. They have come up with a special thermal insulation product that, if applied in house construction, can greatly reduce energy consumption. It is a powerful technology platform for converting light energy on roofs with thin and foldable photovoltaic cells that are flexible and flexible. This solution has a big impact on achieving our energy goals, climate change improvement goals.

Sometimes a solution to one problem brings up another unexpected problem. How does Dow avoid this?

Dow looks at the entire life cycle and sustainability of the chemical industry. We have to look at a complete life cycle, from the initial raw materials to manufacturing, to transportation, to user use, and to the final disposal of the product, we have to evaluate it. Our philosophy is to reduce the negative impact on the environment throughout the product life cycle.

If you only look at one part of the cycle, and then build policy based on that part, you're likely to get a bad policy. But if you look at the entire cycle and look at the problem responsibly and prudently from a global perspective, the final decision will often have a more positive impact.

We have the world's largest sugarcane bioplastics plant in Brazil, and we are very encouraged by this plant because the plastics it produces are as good as those produced from oil or natural gas. The same, and at the same time it can well address the challenges of greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. Sugarcane itself is a renewable resource, which is very abundant in Brazil. Using sugarcane as a raw material will not compete with humans or livestock for food or feed.

After formulating a better policy from a global perspective, how can all departments work together to achieve a common goal?

What we do is to ensure that sustainability systems and principles are consistent for employees everywhere, and attract business unit leaders, including leaders of various regional branches, to be able to keep moving forward. We need good governance, we need credibility in leadership, and we need tools to assess.

Sustainability depends on everyone's passion

Your role in Sustainability at Dow is a global one, how do you do it?

Actually my work covers many business areas, and I supervise more than 600 people in total, most of them are experts in their fields of expertise, but my team is dedicated to the SDGs The implementation is about 20 people. Dow is a large company with 46,000 employees, so the team is divided into different groups to help regional subsidiaries and business units with their sustainability work. We have many groups within us, and each goal has a corresponding group. They have their own plans and strategies to help achieve their specific goals, and there are related matrices to monitor, evaluate performance, track the achievement of goals, and have networks within the company, with corresponding people in different business units responsible for sustainability Work.

Achieving sustainability goals at a company as large as Dow is primarily through teamwork, mutual understanding, extensive communication, commitment to work, and a matrix in terms of performance tracking to achieve, and in doing so, gives our work more credibility.

What traits do the team members you work with share in common?

When I formed this team, I needed experts in different fields, business people, and technical experts. Therefore, corresponding expertise is required. Aside from their expertise, they all have one thing in common, their passion for achieving their sustainability goals. So on the one hand they are experts, but more importantly they have passion and enthusiasm. Because the business is really complex, it's hard to do without passion and commitment.

In addition, Dow has strong shared corporate values and a strong learning culture where employees share their experiences with each other. So my team members are not only experts in the field, not only passionate about sustainability, but also able to integrate into the Dow culture. When I select a person, I will analyze what the person's strengths are, what he likes to do, what he can do, and whether he has enough enthusiasm for the work in this field. I put these people together and see that their overall contribution is greater than the sum of the simple sums of each person's work, which is the factor for my selection.

In addition to this, creativity is also required, and we encourage everyone to have their own creativity. Our environment is very open, and everyone can come up with their own good and innovative ideas. But once we make a collective decision, all of us work in unison according to that decision. Therefore, we can express our own opinions, be creative, and have strong cohesion at the same time.

Sustainability mobilizes every relationship

What is the relationship between Dow and the community?

Dow's factories in different regions maintain very good relationships with local communities. When Dow arrives in a new community, it will give the local people enough time for them to get to know us slowly. We found that after the local people really got to know Dow, most of them would support our production and activities. We take the time to communicate with them and become their partner.

And every Dow employee has a spirit of sustainability leadership deep within them, and everyone helps others solve the different challenges they face through their work every day. For example, in various places Dow employees are helping local housing construction projects. Another example is some production factories in various places, which create very effective conditions and improve the lives of local people. Another example is the project in Brazil. In fact, before we started the project, we had considered that although no one lived here before the factory was built, many people would move here when the factory was built. Provide adequate housing. We are very concerned about these things, because we do not simply do charity and public welfare undertakings, but form a partnership with the local area, and provide solutions according to local characteristics, so that this community can finally succeed.

How does Dow work with NGOs and how can they play a role?

With regard to cooperation with NGOs, we are looking for common ground, establishing contacts, engaging in serious, serious engagement and dialogue, and we respect each other. I'm not talking about "trust" here, I'm using "respect". Because the role played by NGOs is actually a "lookout post" role. When communicating with them, the message we try to convey to them is that we at Dow know what we should do, that we have clear goals and a responsible attitude. The work we do should be predictable in their eyes, and we will do what we should do, so that Dow can be trusted in their eyes. Through such a contact, mutual respect is established between the two parties.

Actually, Dow has a good relationship with many NGOs. For example, we are working with the Environmental Defense Fund (Environmental Defense Fund) of the United States on a "no-till farming" project in Shaanxi, which is a very good For example, cooperation with NGOs like this is rare in other companies.

In addition, we have a council within our company that includes representatives from NGOs who give their opinions on our sustainability goals. We're not asking them to accept our sustainability goals, rather we're asking them to give us some advice and input on our sustainability work. This council has been in existence for 16 years and is an invaluable resource for Dow's sustainability work.

How does Dow demonstrate leadership in sustainability?

Our development goals are set to lead the industry, so we are playing our part in setting standards. We are also committed to promoting Responsible Care, the global chemical industry standard for safety, health and community, and we are actively encouraging the Chinese chemical industry to adopt this standard in China. Dow's "2015 Sustainable Development Goals", one of the seven goals is "to meet the world's challenges", which means that we need to be able to find some breakthrough solutions to help the world solve some pressing challenges, including affordable housing , clean drinking water, public health, and more. This is also an aspect of our leadership.

Another area is to share our expertise and experience with the Chinese government and companies in the Chinese industry through partnerships.

How to reconcile "green goals" and "profitability goals" if the customer's sustainability values are not aligned with Dow's?

If clients don't fully agree with our ideas, we educate them and help them understand these emerging trends. This is what we at Dow should do as an industry leader. Stakeholders in the market should be educated, not forced. We grow together with our customers, learn together, and finally succeed together in the future. And this partnership includes not only customers, but also the government, because the government can also play its own role in this process.

How is Dow's sustainability status in China?

I really don't have enough information to give a very clear answer to your question. My colleague Lu Wei, who is in charge of public relations for Dow's sustainable development and corporate social responsibility, will give you some details about Dow in China.

Lu Wei: In fact, we have also carried out a lot of sustainable development work in China, including the production of many environmentally friendly products and the application of technology. For example, we have a pilot project for building energy-saving renovation in Beijing, providing products such as thermal insulation boards to improve the energy efficiency of buildings and greatly reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

In addition, sewage treatment is an area of particular concern to the Chinese government. Dow Water Treatment Division has the world's advanced technologies in seawater desalination, water purification and wastewater reuse. Dow's technologies are widely used in Beixiaohe Sewage Treatment Plant reconstruction and expansion and reclaimed water utilization projects, Beijing Capital Airport municipal reclaimed water Among the reuse facilities and reclaimed water reuse facilities in Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone. These projects can treat nearly 45,000 cubic meters of sewage every day, helping the Beijing Municipal Government to increase the sewage reuse rate from the previous 15% to 50%.

Dow's Green Action:

· Use the flywheel to visualize the sustainable development goals, so that employees can understand and implement them easily.

· Make sustainability at the heart of the company's strategy, and all business is carried out accordingly.

· Encourage employees to take responsibility and enthusiasm for sustainable development.

· Assess the sustainability of a product through its entire life cycle.

· Play a leadership role in setting green standards for the industry.

· Provide green solutions tailored to local conditions to communities and customers, and form partners.

· The company's board of directors incorporates representatives from NGOs, acting as "lookout posts".