The Dow Chemical Company
The chemical sector, including the Dow Chemical Company, or Dow, has a strong record in health, safety and environmental performance through the Responsible Care initiative*. Logistics is a key priority given the safety and environmental risks from transporting dangerous goods.
Dow launched its integrated Supply Chain Sustainability Strategy that includes a Green Transportation Initiative to address logistics emissions, which are about 4% of Dow’s 110 million tonnes GHG emissions annually.
"Smart Freight Centre is addressing the global complexities associated with transportation emissions accounting. The GLEC Framework is the building block the industry needs to begin measuring and managing our transportation emissions with an overall goal to reduce our impact.”
Colleen Milster
Integrated Supply Chain Sustainability Specialist, The DOW Chemical Company.
Report
- Adopted the GLEC Framework, which was a missing link to achieve end-to-end transparency of the carbon footprint of its logistics supply chain. It found that adopting the GLEC Framework is compatible with Dow’s existing work with the SmartWay program* in the US, third-party data platforms such as EcoVadis, and industry guidelines* by European associations such as CEFIC and ECTA on logistics emissions calculation. As the first chemical company to adopt the GLEC Framework, Dow can lead the way for improved logistics emissions accounting across the chemical sector.
Reduce
- Drives action by acknowledging and promoting sustainability excellence amongst carriers in every region through sustainability awards in different regions worldwide. For example, the DowGOL award in Brazil recognizes Dow’s best logistics providers, such as warehouses, terminals, carriers and distributors, and includes sustainability criteria. The award drives performance: in 2015, for example, 83% of the carriers showed evidence of projects to reduce GHG emissions in their operations.
Collaborate
- Collaborates with other shippers in green freight programs to improve logistics efficiency and mobilize carriers. Dow exchanges best practices* with other shippers through the Brazilian Green Logistics Program*, and is looking to partner with other Green Freight programs around the globe. Dow collaborated with P&G to reduce the environmental impact from the transport of a Dow-supplied raw material by switching a portion of the shipments from road freight to rail cars. This resulted in a reduction of our transportation CO2 emissions by over 1,400MT annually and cut diesel fuel use by over 180,000 gallons per year.
The Dow Chemical Company is a leading producer of plastics, chemicals, hydrocarbons, and agrochemicals. It is now part of the merged company DowDuPont and includes Dow (materials science), Corteva Agriscience (agriculture) and Dupont (specialty products) . Find out more on Dow Sustainability Reporting.
Source of reference:
* Responsible Care: the global chemical industry’s voluntary initiative
* EPA SmartWay program
* CEFIC industry guidelines: Measuring and Managing CO2 Emissions of European Chemical Transport
* PLVB Reference guide on Sustainability: Best practice for freight transport
* PLVB -the Brazilian Green Logistics Program
* Dow 2016 Sustainability Report on collaboration with P&G