From Purpose to Action: Building a Sustainable Future Together

Dow Sustainability Director Julie Zaniewski kicks off this conversation series by sharing insights into how the chemical giant is shaking up business as usual to deliver solutions.

Rather than focus solely on plastic alternatives, we must consider the full lifecycle of materials to see the benefits of circularity. Three technologies are surfacing as viable solutions to increase plastic’s circularity with low-carbon performance at the core.

These investments offer proof-of-concept for scaling more investments in waste infrastructure across North America. Modernizing Sims’ recycling capabilities acts as a circularity laboratory, which can lead to better design for the whole US recycling system.

When it comes to making sustainable business a reality, the journey is just as important as the destination. Few companies prove this more than Dow — provider of many of the chemical, plastic and consumer solutions that the world needs to successfully transition to a low-carbon economy.

Disasters such as the aftermath of the February 2021 ice storm that left millions of Texans without running water lay bare the urgent need for updated utility infrastructure across the US. This would involve repairing and replacing hundreds of thousands of miles of water piping — but what should be used in their place?

Solving the ongoing packaging conundrum demands a significant shift in how businesses think — moving from a linear to a circular model of operation to improve the amount of packaging that can be reused, recycled and returned to the value chain.

In order for truly sustainable and circular systems to be realized, every facet of normal life must be re-considered — from the cars we drive to the roads we drive them on.

Today, Dow considers its sustainability strategy and business strategy to be one and the same; employees understand that the two can no longer be separate. But, as Global Sustainability Director Haley Lowry explains, this didn’t happen overnight.

We believe that the solution to stopping plastic waste is understanding that the material is too valuable to be lost in landfills. We can change what is traditionally considered waste and transform it into a valuable, sustainable resource through advanced recycling.

With specific investments, partnerships and innovations all directed at the various steps of the plastics system, Dow’s approach provides a blueprint for how industry can build a foundation for a circular economy and the reduction of emissions.

Dow aims to not only provide more sustainable products, but to share our expertise to support people and our planet’s wellbeing. For that expertise to reach its highest potential, it must be backed by international cooperation at every level.

Through Dow’s ‘Looped In’ series, sustainability experts across the company connect with industry leaders to discuss initiatives and partnerships that work toward building a more circular economy and explore what we can learn from the results.

While the use of green chemistry is critical to mitigating adverse environmental impacts, there remains a gap in education of chemists and an overall lack of awareness in the industry. We sat down with John Warner, one of the founders of the field, to better understand how green chemistry is helping to enable a more sustainable future through science.

Although progress is being made to advance a circular economy, converting difficult-to-recycle flexible plastics and films, such as plastic bags, into new products has largely been untouched by recycling innovators. Dow, Circulate Capital and Lucro Plast-e-cycle are partnering to change that.