Energy has always had a special bond with Dow. Over 110 years ago, our company was founded when Herbert Dow used electricity to create bromine and chlorine from salt – a process still in use. Today, we’re one of the largest producers of innovative products that reduce energy use. In fact, our products reduce greenhouse gas emissions by multiples more than our own emissions on an annual basis.

Driven by our 2015 Sustainability Goals, we’re on an aggressive track to reduce our energy consumption:

• Saved over $5 billion with a $1 billion investment
• Reduced solid waste by 1.6 billion pounds - enough to fill 415 football fields one meter deep
• Reduced water use by 183 billion pounds - equal to water usage for 170,000 U.S. homes for one year
• Saved 900 trillion BTUs of energy - enough to power 8 million U.S. homes for one year
• Reduced personal safety and health incidents by 84%

The chemical industry utilizes about 3% of the total energy consumed by the industrial sector. Of this amount, about half is used for separations and other processes, with the balance leaving the industry as potential energy stored in our products.

Dow's Energy Plan for America (143KB PDF)

We know that conservation and diversity of supply are instrumental to the world’s efficient use of energy. Alternative energy solutions like solar, wind, biomass and others (when practical on a large scale) will be among the breakthrough technologies that help reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, and ultimately reduce greenhouse gases. We’ve been contributing solutions to the global climate change and energy challenge for decades. Here are some of the innovations we’re working on right now:

• Using alternative feedstocks through a sugar-to-polyethylene project in Brazil, which will be the world’s largest bio-derived plastics facility.
• Developing new epoxies for improved wind blades that are lighter and stronger.
• Helping homeowners improve energy efficiency with breakthrough home insulation products.
• Developing the world’s first Building Integrated Photovoltaic solutions that promise to make solar energy practical and economical for common households.