Review: Corporate Citizenship

Dow takes its role as a corporate citizen very seriously and is committed to being a strong influence for positive change. It is our desire to earn the respect of the people who are impacted by our activities every day: our employees and retirees, the communities where we operate, the end-users of our products, and the governments and municipalities that depend on the tax revenues we generate.

Once again in 2006, we took action, drawing from a strong financial base to support a variety of programs aimed at improving education, health, cultural activities, the environment, governance and more.

Dow’s global charitable contributions for the year were $27.9 million, compared with $23.2 million in 2005. With those dollars, we continued our 25-plus-year relationship with Habitat for Humanity, taking part in construction projects in Canada, the United States, Malaysia, Thailand and India. We supported projects aimed at raising awareness of a range of environmental issues: from the impact of debris on our oceans and the ecological importance of preserving the mangrove habitat, to the plight of 1.2 billion people with no reliable access to clean water.

We maintained strong ties to education—backing a broad range of projects across the world. From programs to create exciting new lesson plans for teachers in the United States, to donations of classroom equipment in The Netherlands, to volunteerism at schools in Japan and elsewhere.

And we sharpened our focus on human health, especially in the areas of fitness and well-being. For example, we supported a variety of local community sporting events close to our sites in Europe—from bike rides in Tarragona, Spain, to a long-distance run in Stade, Germany. In Russia, we sponsored Operation HOPE—an organization that provides life-saving surgery to premature infants. And for the fifth time, we donated a reverse osmosis water purification system to one of Vietnam’s many rural hospitals, on this occasion, the Tan Thanh hospital northeast of Ho Chi Minh city.

Dow also continued to fulfill its pledge to develop products essential to human progress. For example, we launched FORTEFIBER™ soluble dietary fiber—a product with proven benefits in managing blood glucose and cholesterol; we announced our decision to expand production and marketing of next-generation canola and sunflower oils to support healthier eating; and we received the world’s first regulatory approval for a plant-cell-produced animal health vaccine from the United States Department of Agriculture Center for Veterinary Biologics.

And on the governance front, we once again received the highest rating possible for corporate governance from GovernanceMetrics International, an independent research and ratings agency. Dow has received the maximum score of 10 in five consecutive semi-annual assessments.

Dow tracks the progress of its corporate citizenship agenda against a number of key metrics, a selection of which are provided below. For more information, visit the “Our Commitments” section of www.dow.com.

Purchases by Geographic Area

Taxes Paid by Geographic Area

Charitable Contributions by Geographic Area

EMPLOYEES BY GEOGRAPHIC AREA
	02	03	04	05	06*
Total Employees	50,000	46,400	43,200	42,400	42,600
North America	55%	55%	54%	53%	52%
Europe*	31%	30%	31%	31%	29%
India, Middle East, Africa	*	*	*	*	2%
Asia Pacifc*	6%	7%	7%	7%	8%
Latin America	8%	8%	8%	9%	9%
Male Employees	76%	76%	76%	76%	75%
Female Employees	24%	24%	24%	24%	25%

* Prior to 2006, India was reported as part of the Asia Pacific region; and Middle East and Africa were reported as parts of the European region.

™Trademark of The Dow Chemical Company (“Dow”) or an affiliated company of Dow.

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