The year marked the final chapter in our 2005 Environment, Health and Safety (EH&S) Goals program: a 10-year initiative focused on setting new standards of EH&S performance within the chemical industry. Although at the time of publishing this report not all of the year-end 2005 results are available, we know that we have met our targets in several areas, exceeded some, and come very close in most of the others. We are proud of our achievements over the past decade and are now focused on new, broader and more aggressive sustainability goals for 2015 with the aim of raising the bar of industry performance still higher. As new results become available, they will be reflected in the Environmental Stewardship pages on Dow’s Our Commitments website.

During 2005, we made further progress in the area of employee safety, with the Company’s injury and illness rate improving 20 percent compared with 2004. Since 1994, this rate has fallen by 84 percent – a tremendous achievement, but one that was sadly overshadowed in 2005 by three separate incidents leading to the deaths of three co-workers. These tragic incidents strengthen our resolve to continue to infuse an employee mindset, a leadership attitude and a corporate culture that is committed to zero accidents, zero injuries and zero excuses.

Also during the year, Dow and the State Environmental Protection Administration of China launched a National Cleaner Production Pilot Project in the country, focused on reducing the environmental impact of the country’s industrial activities. Dow will contribute both funding and technical know-how to the project.

In the same vein, the Company also signed a letter of intent with China’s State Administration of Work Safety for a joint, national demonstration project on the safe management of hazardous chemicals.

On the other side of the world, Dow’s new Energy Optimization Technology has significantly improved efficiency at sites in Texas, U.S.A. The technology enables Dow to determine exactly how much energy is needed to run its plant at any given time, meet demand with the most economical energy source and stay within site emissions constraints – thereby minimizing waste, saving energy and reducing costs.

In Europe, SAFECHEM, a Dow subsidiary, launched a chemical leasing pilot project for metal cleaning applications in the automotive industry. After eight months, solvent emissions had been cut by more than 60 percent.

And also in Europe, the Company announced a third professorship in Sustainable Development at the University of Tarragona in Spain. Dow also sponsors a Chair of Sustainable Development at the Wittenberg Center for Global Ethics in Germany and the University of Michigan in the United States.

During the year, we once again received guidance from our Corporate Environmental Advisory Council, a panel of 10 external stakeholders whose knowledge, experience and understanding provide critical counsel to Dow on environment, health, safety and sustainability issues. For example, the Council, which is now in its 15th year, played an integral role in helping Dow develop its 2015 goals, and offered important insight on a number of key corporate, business and stakeholder-related matters.

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