Frequently Asked Questions
The Dow Chemical Company/Nature
Conservancy Collaboration
Q1. What is The Nature Conservancy/Dow Chemical Company Collaboration?
A1. The Nature Conservancy and The Dow Chemical Company are working together on a breakthrough
collaboration: an environmental NGO is working with a Fortune 50 company to show that protecting
nature is an essential global business strategy – and a company priority. For the benefit of these
organizations, other businesses, society, and the planet, the Collaboration will demonstrate the power
of factoring the value of biodiversity and ecosystem services into corporate decision-making.
Over the course of five years, scientists from The Nature Conservancy and Dow will work together at
three pilot sites (North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific) to implement and refine models that
support corporate decision-making related to the value and resources nature provides. These sites will
serve as a “living laboratories”— places where we will validate and test our methods and models so
they can be used to inform more sustainable business decisions at Dow and hopefully influence the
decision-making and business practices of other companies globally.
As our work continues to develop, we will share the details publicly. We will report on progress, actions
and results on an annual basis, and produce peer reviewed papers, case studies, and technical reports
and share them with the corporate sustainability and conservation communities.
The Dow Chemical Company and The Dow Chemical Company Foundation are putting a total of $10M
toward this effort.
Q2. What are some expected outcomes of the Collaboration?
A2. This engagement is an example of how companies and organizations from different sectors can work
together to make real change happen. Our intention is that this Collaboration and its outcomes will
serve as a model for how other companies can replicate it globally. Our ultimate goal is to enable more
companies to incorporate the value of nature into business, and increase investment in protecting the
planet’s natural systems and the services they provide.
We will create tools, methods and models to help companies incorporate the economic value of nature
into their strategies, goals and decision-making. Outcomes will have near- and long-term impacts on
Dow’s top and bottom lines, and inform the Company’s next generation of Sustainability Goals. We will
be sharing our methods and results to bring this science to other companies in order to increase
conservation of natural resources.
Q3. Why are Collaborations like this so important to business? What is the business value to Dow of
this program?
A3. Global companies who strategically manage the value of ecosystem services will have a competitive
advantage now and in the future. Smart management of biodiversity and ecosystem services enables
corporations to implement policies and practices to reduce their impact on nature, as well as make
strategic conservation investments to ensure a continued flow of nature’s benefits for their company
needs, and to the communities where companies work and where people and nature live.
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The impacts to ecosystem services and the benefits they provide are often not accounted for when landmanagement decisions are being made –resulting in unnecessary costs to companies, and society at
large. Companies who value and integrate biodiversity and ecosystem services into business decisions
and practices are better positioned to manage risks to their supply chains, license to operate, and
operating costs as well as to save costs and better position themselves competitively.
In Dow’s case, by incorporating biodiversity and ecosystem services into its sustainability goals, business
practices and decisions, it can improve decisions like facility siting and conservation investments thereby
reducing risk, improving efficiencies and improving overall corporate responsibility.
Q4: Why are Collaborations like this so important for conservation?
A4: The Nature Conservancy’s mission is to conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends.
Right now, conservationists are facing unprecedented challenges to this mission; over the next few
decades, the demands on nature will far exceed its ability to provide for us. The Conservancy needs this
type of collaboration – and the full participation of the private sector – to successfully protect the planet
for future generations. The Conservancy simply can’t do it alone, and is seeking partners with far reach,
established sustainability goals and systems, a commitment to mutual goals ¬– and the potential – to
have a major impact.
Q5. How has the Collaboration progressed? Can you tell me where the pilot sites are? How did you
choose them?
Q5. Since the launch of the Collaboration in January 2011, the Conservancy and Dow have been working
together to identify key ecosystem services—like water, air quality and coastal protection—Dow relies
upon and impacts at priority sites around the world. It has been a true “roll up your sleeves” effort—
engaging Dow and Conservancy scientists, economists and project staff at both the corporate and local
level.
Results of this analysis coupled with site selection criteria (which looked at regions with both
conservation and business priorities), helped us identify Dow’s Texas Operations in Freeport as the first
pilot location to begin testing and applying the science of valuing nature. The second pilot site will be
located in Santa Vitória at the site of a cooperating joint venture company, Santa Vitoria Acucar eAlcool
Ltda. (SVVA), formed by Dow and Mitsui & Co. Ltd. The Nature Conservancy and Dow are working
together to identify the remaining pilot site and will have more details in late 2012.
Q6. What was the process that you used to identify which ecosystem services were most important to
Dow and most at risk in Brazil?
A6. “Scientists, economists and project staff from the corporate and local levels of Dow, Mitsui and the
Conservancy came together for a one-day working session. The team identified which ecosystem
services the site and its supply chain depend on and impact the most, using a process modified from the
World Business Council on Sustainable Development’s Corporate Ecosystem Services Review, and a
reviewed how they relate to key business decisions. The focus of the analysis was further refined into
priorities based on the highest strategic impact to Dow and the most significant conservation value.“
Q7. What made Dow’s Texas site an ideal candidate for the first pilot location? What type of
work/analysis are you doing there?
A7. Dow’s Texas Operations specifically was chosen because it is located where the Gulf of Mexico, the
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lower Brazos River and the Columbia Bottomlands all meet, a network of freshwater, marsh and forest
ecosystems that are critical not only to Dow’s operations but to fish and wildlife, agriculture and local
communities.
The site is also significant on both local and global scales. Dow is one of the largest chemical
manufacturing companies in the world and its Texas Operations in Freeport is Dow’s largest integrated
manufacturing site, and the largest single chemical complex in North America. This site produces 44
percent of Dow's products sold in the United States and more than 21 percent of Dow's products sold
globally. It is also one of the largest employers in South Texas.
In addition, it offers opportunities to advance Collaboration methods and tools related to three key
ecosystem services— fresh, flowing water necessary for industry as well as communities and
ecosystems; coastal marshes that buffer it from floods and hurricanes; and forests that clean the air
and support the health of people and nature in the surrounding region.
Dow and Conservancy scientists worked together to identify specific initiatives that we wanted to
undertake at Dow’s Texas Operations. We are focusing our efforts on:
1. Helping Dow put an economic value on the services nature provides so they can be integrated
into business decisions;
2. Assessing new ways to maintain flow of water in the river in the face of drought, population
growth and changing coastlines;
3. Assessing the opportunity to improve air quality in the area through large-scale tree planting;
and
4. Evaluating how surrounding marshes and coastlines protect the facility and community from
storm surges and hurricanes.
We will also produce peer reviewed papers, cases studies, and technical reports based on our initiatives,
and share them with the corporate sustainability and conservation communities.
Q8. Likewise, what made the Santa Vitória site an ideal candidate for the second pilot location? What
type of work/analysis will be done there?
A8. Similar to the first pilot site at Dow’s Texas Operations in Freeport, the SVVA’s Santa Vitória site in
Brazil was selected because it met our criteria for both conservation and business priorities.
This site affords us the opportunity to address new and different challenges, and it gives us the
opportunity to test a variety of different scientific models and theories, in real time, on the ground.
Specifically, this site is expected to begin construction on a new production facility this year (2012),
which will expand operations to make it the world’s largest integrated facility for the production of
biopolymers made from renewable sugar cane. By working together there now, we have an
opportunity to influence planning for expanded agricultural production (sugar cane) and future site
development.
In addition, the site is located in between two environmentally significant areas—The Atlantic Forest
and the Cerrado— both are facing threats of development and deforestation—due in part to agriculture
production (less than 6% of natural vegetation remains, and is highly fragmented and poorly protected).
These areas are known to harbor some of the most unique plant and animal species in all of Brazil.
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As we begin our analysis at the Santa Vitória site, we will focus our efforts on:
1. Improving decision making around how agricultural lands are expanded, where
development could occur—and where sensitive areas exist—based on important factors like
impacts on natural resources, important habitats, communities and precious species.
2. Ensuring access to fresh, clean water through forest protection and restoration.
Healthy forests can help maintain important water resources by retaining sediment and
nutrients important to supporting industry as well as the health of people and nature in the
surrounding region.
3. Incorporating the value of nature and the benefits it provides into decision making—
like the benefits fertile soils provide for agriculture production; how healthy, intact forests
can naturally clean water and air and create habitats for local wildlife; and how healthy,
flowing water supplies offer the resources that companies and local communities rely on.
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Q9. How will you take the science conducted at each site and put it into practice?
A9. A goal of the Collaboration is to transfer knowledge. The methodologies developed in each pilot site
study will be leveraged to other Dow sites and other companies that rely on natural resource so that
they may better value nature.
The Collaboration will be publishing briefs, best practices documents, scientific papers and similar
materials describing this work and its results for use by the broader conservation and corporate
sustainability communities. In addition, the Conservancy will be integrating lessons from this work in to
its other conservation efforts.
Q10. How will this work benefit the community? Benefit the industry? Benefit other companies?
A10. The pilot sites are our first step in developing methodologies that show how companies and
industry can best value nature in business decision making. Companies and communities alike depend
on the benefits nature provides—like clean air, fresh water, food and protection from natural disasters.
With improved tools and a way to value nature, companies can support investments in nature for the
greatest outcomes.
Working with companies to appropriately value these services and incorporate them into their decision
making can ensure communities have continued access and availability of important natural resources
(ecosystem services), and that these key are healthy and functioning for the future.
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