Dow Chemical Partners With The Nature Conservancy

Dow Chemical Co. has partnered with Overbrook environment grantee The Nature Conservancy to make environmental costs and benefits part of every business decision at its Freeport complex. The five-year, $10 million project has been developed as an effort to help Dow become a good steward while cutting waste from the bottom line.

Scientists from Dow and the conservancy will develop models to assess the company's operations and will include the value of "ecosystem services," such as clean water, hurricane protection, and carbon sequestration. Scientists will focus primarily on the freshwater supply from the Brazos River, as well as the potential of large-scale tree planting to mitigate smog-forming pollution and building wetlands as hurricane protection.

The Nature Conservancy's chief scientist of the project, Jennifer Molnar, said analytical work should be completed by the end of the year and will be peer-reviewed before being published for other corporations to see.