Dow Joins CDP Supply Chain Program to Expand Supplier Engagement on Climate

Dow, a materials science company, has joined the CDP Supply Chain Program (formerly Carbon Disclosure Project), an international non-profit specialized in environmental reporting.

“Dow is joining the CDP to track climate impacts in the supply chain and identify collaborative decarbonization opportunities with suppliers,” says Kyle Bandlow, Corporate Media Relations Director for Dow, based in Midland, Mich.

This is part of Dow’s expanded Sustainable Procurement multigenerational plan. The CDP program supports Dow’s “protect the climate” targets, announced in 2020, and its commitment to accelerate its work with its suppliers, customers and value chain partners to ensure Dow’s ecosystem is carbon neutral by 2050.

In 2021 Dow intends to engage suppliers to request climate-related information via CDP’s online disclosure platform. “Dow has an aggressive target to reduce its net annual carbon emissions by 5 million metric tons (versus 2020 baseline) by 2030 and to ensure Dow’s ecosystem is carbon neutral by 2050,” Leticia Jensen, Global Purchasing Sustainability Director for Dow, said in a statement. “While we continue to take action to reduce our own emissions, our suppliers will play a critical role in helping Dow achieve carbon neutrality.”

Dow’s goal is to become the most innovative, customer centric, inclusive and sustainable materials science company, with a purpose to deliver a sustainable future for the world through our materials science expertise and collaboration with our partners. Dow operates 106 manufacturing sites in 31 countries and employs approximately 35,700 people.

CDP is a global non-profit that runs the world’s environmental disclosure system for companies, cities, states and regions. Founded in 2000, the organization works with more than 590 investors. More than 10,000 organizations around the world disclosed data through CDP in 2020, including more than 940 cities, states and regions, representing a combined population of more than 2.6 billion.

CDP provides a framework to collect critical climate data from suppliers, enabling Dow to better evaluate supply chain risks and to identify synergies to catalyze greater emission reductions.

“By collecting relevant and comparable environmental data, Dow can better measure supplier environmental impacts and account for its value chain, or scope 3, emissions,” Dow Purchasing Vice President Cathy Budd said in a statement. “By requesting qualitative and quantitative climate data from suppliers in a standardized way, Dow will support the harmonization of carbon accounting principles, while improving the consistency and accuracy of data.”

Dow will also engage its suppliers by providing feedback on areas for possible improvements, helping to build expertise in climate accounting.

“This engagement is part of Dow’s multigenerational plan to advance Sustainable Procurement practices,” says Bandlow. “By making climate data available on CDP’s platform, Dow can help its customers, suppliers and other value chain partners to make more informed decisions about their own risks and identify opportunities for collaboration to decrease the total carbon footprint.”